VOA标准英语2014--Russia's Ukraine Policy Part of Broader Shift 俄罗斯的乌克兰政策发生转变

 

Russia's Ukraine Policy Part of Broader Shift 俄罗斯的乌克兰政策发生转变

LONDON — It was all smiles for the cameras when Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in September and expressed his intention to join the Russian-led Customs Union.

In doing so, Sargsyan abandoned more than two years of negotiations¹ on an association agreement with the European Union.

While Russian pressure seemingly worked in that situation, it backfired two months later when Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych did the same thing, sparking months of protests, a violent crackdown and his ouster by the parliament, where members of his own party voted against him.

With Ukraine, Putin was faced with a choice -- accept the changes and potentially lose his special relationship with more former Soviet² states, or take action and sacrifice his relationship with the West.

Russia’s intervention³ in Ukraine has surprised many experts, but some say it should have been expected based partly on its interaction with Armenia last fall.

“Russian policy has significantly shifted, where limits and restraint no longer apply.  And more importantly, Russia is now firm and committed to pushing back and pushing out EU engagement in the so-called ‘near abroad’,” said Richard Giragosian, director of the Regional Studies Center in Armenia.

The shift surprised European leaders, but it shouldn’t have, particularly regarding Ukraine, said Nina Schick of London’s Open Europe research center.

“Some would say that it was a mistake that [European leaders] made that they didn’t take the Russian position more into account.  The reality is that the Russian sphere of influence in Ukraine is far greater than perhaps they’d like to admit,” Schick said.

But Giragosian disagrees, saying it was reasonable, 25 years after the fall of the Soviet Union, to expect Russia to accept a turn to the West by its former satellites.  He says Russia’s current policy runs counter to its own interests.

“It’s a shortsighted and short-term pursuit of raw power.  In effect, they are recreating a new Iron Curtain through the former Soviet space,” Giragosian said.

Or trying to.

 

Giragosian said former Soviet states will resist such moves and the West will impose significant economic costs if Russia continues to use force to try to impose its will on Ukraine or other neighbors.

1 negotiations   

协商( negotiation的名词复数 )； 谈判； 完成（难事）； 通过

参考例句：

• negotiations for a durable peace 为持久和平而进行的谈判
• Negotiations have failed to establish any middle ground. 谈判未能达成任何妥协。

2 Soviet   

adj.苏联的，苏维埃的；n.苏维埃

参考例句：

• Zhukov was a marshal of the former Soviet Union.朱可夫是前苏联的一位元帅。
• Germany began to attack the Soviet Union in 1941.德国在1941年开始进攻苏联。

3 intervention   

n.介入，干涉，干预

参考例句：

• The government's intervention in this dispute will not help.政府对这场争论的干预不会起作用。
• Many people felt he would be hostile to the idea of foreign intervention.许多人觉得他会反对外来干预。