For decades, the promise of responsible investing rested on a quiet faith: that companies guided by environmental, social, and governance principles would stand firmer when the world shook. A study published in Nature, examining ten emerging markets during the Russia-Ukraine war, gently dismantles that faith — not by condemning the ideals behind ESG, but by revealing how little those ideals have been translated into the architecture of the indices that carry their name. What investors purchased as shelter, it turns out, was largely a mirror of what they already held.