“A man is known by the company he keeps.”
This ancient wisdom, articulated by Aesop to teach moral judgment, has been corrupted by the modern West. It has been transformed into a political whip. “Guilt by Association.” Today, in the pursuit of geopolitical agendas, this argument is deployed not as a moral lesson, but as the primary means to enforce international sanctions against nations that dare to assert their sovereign economic choice.
In the aftermath of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the West launched an unprecedented economic war against the Russian federation. In its tools of economic coercion the entire mix of methods from blacklisting, blockades, sanctions, embargoes, to boycotts were used. Among those methods, ‘’sanctions ‘’ of unheard levels were promoted, enforced as a silver bullet that will bring the Kremlin to its knees. When the sanctions backfired and failed, the west went after secondary targets. Not just against Moscow, but against any nation that refused to fall in line. Among the most vocal targets? India, a democracy of 1.4 billion people, a Quad partner, and a long-standing U.S. ally in the Indo-Pacific. Why? Because India continued to buy discounted Russian oil.
The accusation? “Guilt by association.” The implication? By engaging in energy trade with a sanctioned state, India is complicit in aggression. Is it though ? This framing is not just flawed and hollow, it’s hypocritical, imperial, and dangerously selective. It ignores history, economics, and above all, the sovereign right of nations to prioritize their people over geopolitical theater.
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