You just don't have to hug him
On workplace interactions, red carpets, and colossally wrong ways to greet an autocrat
Suppose you knew a work colleague who had been credibly accused of vandalizing a hospital, pushing an old lady into traffic, and slapping a child. If you possessed normal sensible judgment, you would steer clear of that person to the maximum extent possible.
■ The workplace from time to time forces us to work with people we don’t like. But it doesn’t really force us to lavish our affections on those people, especially if they’re known to possess bad character.
■ Geopolitics is a sort of workplace, too, for the diplomats and heads of state who participate in it. There are friends, enemies, friendships of convenience, and frenemies. But just as in a domestic workplace, there are choices to be made about how to get along with others.
■ Vladimir Putin hasn’t just vandalized a hospital; he has ordered them blown up. He hasn’t just pushed an old lady into traffic; he has had indiscriminately bombed old ladies (and other civilians) in their own homes. He hasn’t just slapped a child; he has caused thousands of children to be abducted from their homes and taken prisoner in another country.
■ Under no circumstances is it necessary to hug Vladimir Putin, but India’s prime minister has just done precisely that. Perhaps he took his cues from the totally unnecessary red carpet incident in August.
■ Whatever the reason, it’s an embarrassment for any self-respecting democracy to have its leader display any warmth or affection for a man responsible for the completely unnecessary and unprovoked war of aggression against Ukraine. Diplomacy may require that our countries talk to him. It does not in the least require giving him a glowing photo op.