Where do disgraced dictators and fugitive tyrants go when their regimes collapse? Increasingly, the answer lies in Moscow. Under Vladimir Putin’s leadership, Russia has solidified itself as a haven for fallen autocrats—those whose crimes and corruption leave them exiled but still valuable in the Kremlin’s geopolitical game.

Ambiguity in a world with leaders like Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) will inevitably lead to them bringing their version of certainty to the conflicts and regions filled with ambiguity — and it is critical that democratic nations around the world not allow this to happen. Certainty, where and when there is none, must be defined by democratic nations, and not those whose interests are counter to freedom, fairness and human rights.

Every country has the fundamental right to set their own domestic and foreign policy. But when the actions of leaders clothed in the regalia of tyranny and oppression imperil the basic human rights of their citizens and when their actions impact the state of world affairs and the safety and security of another country and by extension the world as a whole – as in the case of a dictator like Putin - governments and defenders of the free world must speak up and act.