I think this might be an unpopular take, but I think we – and I’m talking about activists and ecosocialists here – should be advocating for a just transition away from fossil fuels in places like Russia.

Reading the article, my first thought was gleeful schadenfreude. The people responsible for Russia’s coal industry are frankly monsters. They have so much blood on their hands for the human toll they have imposed on the climate, but also because they’re authoritarian war-mongers. And seeing them hoisted by their own petard is a wonderful thing to see.

But then my second thought was this: the workers in this industry are suffering badly, and will suffer worse. They are in an economic crisis that is getting worse, and ruled over by oligarchs who amplify all their suffering.

And then my third thought was of revolution. As much as we hate to admit it, revolution in the real world is a value-neutral proposition. In the face of awful circumstances, it’s hard to imagine the outcome of a revolution not being better. But that’s just a failure of imagination. This kind of event fuels revolution, but there’s no guarantee that such a revolution won’t simply move to another form of exploitation and barbarism. If we want the workers of Russia to be able to live lives of dignity and comfort, and we want the whole world to decarbonize as fast as possible, then I think that Russia needs access to the technologies and ideas that provide that. My point is that we should begin advocating for tech transfer.

Tech transfer to a regime like Putin’s? I don’t love it. But I think it needs considered.