The Soviet Union didn’t have much good to be said for it: It was economically stunted, politically repressed, and environmentally broken. But it did have an energetic scientific community, at least within fields that could be applied to military use. In that era, the US had a comparatively giant free economy that provided big advantages in both the Second World War and the Cold War.
■ The Soviet command economy learned less from day-to-day encounters with consumers and competitors, so it committed a fair amount of state resources to science and technology research. The US did, too, but it helped a lot to have an economy that rewarded innovation.
■ To this day, Russia’s export economy is far less sophisticated than it ought to be. It’s mostly an extraction-based export market, with petroleum far out in the lead.
■ That’s what makes the news of a special deal to let Russia sell diesel so frustrating. Restricting the flow of money into the country by restricting its exports of petroleum products is a bloodless way of discouraging further attacks on Ukraine. No incoming money means it’s harder to make war.
■ Take away the restrictions, though -- even if nominally to make life easier on the US domestic public -- and you make it easier for the bad guys to create pain. Ukraine deserves better allies who will do more of what is within their own power to help hasten peace. Sometimes peace costs a little more.