Russia's Blood Hydrocarbons

Abstract

Is it morally permissible to buy Russia’s most prized hydrocarbon commodities? In this essay I contribute to the debate by illuminating what exactly makes the goods at stake morally compromised and what kinds of obligations or responsibilities they raise. I argue that while the obligation to stop buying Russia’s oil and gas could be framed in the moral language of responsibility or complicity, as some political theorists of global justice propose, it can also be based—perhaps even more compellingly—on reasoning which underlies the use of economic sanctions authorized by international law to punish the breach of peace and security. Russia’s illegal war and the multiple serious violations of international law it involves represent a new context in which it is possible to make a clear-cut case for an obligation to stop buying its most revenue-generating commodities.

Keywords: blood oil, clean trade, sanctions