Putin sits atop a system where those with disproportionate power who chose him over democracy as he butchers civilians in Ukraine. How did he get there?

True democracies are created through family reforms that eliminate oligarchies and despots by ensuring children’s rights under the Children’s Rights Convention, including the right to equal opportunities in life, and to a meaningful voice in democracies surrounded by a safe and biodiverse natural world. Instead, world leaders are opting for a system that ensures old family hierarchies and unsustainable growth. That move fundamentally created the crises we face today, including the despotism of Vladimir Putin who rose to power on pronatal polices designed to create mothers for the motherland of Russia, not democracy.

That system fundamentally supports wealthy strongmen around the world who then universally support population growth policies that expand their base, a population Ponzi scheme Nobel Laureates have recently called out.

That’s what you are seeing when men with disproportionate power push women to have kids, and we see these policies being pushed by many, from Vladimir Putin, to Mitt Romney, to Xi Jinping.

But 1) because these policies violate fundamental human rights, 2) because the beneficiaries of the growth never paid the full costs to our core values of the benefits they received, and 3) because every child’s right to an ecosocial Fair Start in life is the first and overriding human right, we can target the beneficiaries directly – governments supporting us or not – to redistribute the wealth to fund ecosocial Fair Starts in life.

That act of demand – of physically constituting ourselves as free and equal people – is what it means to be free. It’s the opposite of where pyramidic population growth policies have put us, with icons now joking about man-on-man combat as women and children die.

So how do we target Putin’s economic base and move money from the top into Fair Start investing in women and future children, ideally in Ukraine?

We hear a lot about Russian oligarchs, but plenty of American families – like the Koch brothers – helped prop up Putin over the years and still are. It’s time for citizen sanctions and reparations for ecosocial Fair Starts in life, rather than governments taking resources to reinforce the basic unjust power structure. Is the money better spent on physically building democracy in Ukraine, or going to governments for use by people like Donald Trump, were he reelected?

Exxon is one of those entities who propped up Putin, and one of the last companies to pull out of Russia after significant pressure. Many families in the U.S. are associated with the company and also enriched themselves through Putin. We can take those resources to reverse course and create the future we want. It’s not about the target as much as it is about the nature of the ask: We wish to change family policy to become a different sort of people than we are today, and will you pay what you owe to make that happen?

Take Action:

Fair Start is openly asking Exxon and the associated families to pay what they owe to physically build true democracy through funding Fair Start family planning. Contact Ashley@FairStartMovement.org if you would like to volunteer to assist with these demands.

We will also be supporting protesters fundamental human right to seize wealth from oligarchs in Russia for Fair Start reforms, including Putin’s family, as well as from other targets here in the United States. As Zelensky says, it’s wrong to put economy before democracy.

Urge Texas Congressman Chip Roy to drop his opposition to the defense of Ukraine, and to support Fair Start the source of true democracy.

There is one first and overriding human right, and we are most obligated to be fair to others when we are created fairly.