| 双语新闻 Bilingual News | 双语对照阅读 分级系列阅读 智能辅助阅读 在线英语学习 |
|
| 双语新闻 Bilingual News | 双语对照阅读 分级系列阅读 智能辅助阅读 在线英语学习 |
| [英文] [中文] [双语对照] [双语交替] [] |
| WASHINGTON — When Vladimir V. Putin declared Sunday that he was putting his nuclear forces into “special combat readiness” — a heightened alert status reminiscent of some of the most dangerous moments of the Cold War — President Biden and his aides had a choice. |
| 华盛顿——周日，当普京宣布将俄军核力量调至“特殊战备状态”时——一种高度戒备状态，令人联想到冷战时期某些最危险时刻——拜登总统和他的助手需要做出选择。 |
| They could match the move and put American forces on Defcon 3 — known to moviegoers as that moment when the Air Force rolls out bombers, and nuclear silos and submarines are put on high alert. Or the president could largely ignore it, sending out aides to portray Mr. Putin as once again manufacturing a menace, threatening Armageddon for a war he started without provocation. |
| 他们可能采取同样的行动，即让美军进入“三级防御准备状态”，也就是电影爱好者所熟知的空军部队推出轰炸机，核发射井与潜艇均处于高度戒备状态的时刻。或者，拜登总统可以基本忽视此举，派助手宣称普京再次制造了危机，要把这场他无缘无故发动的战争变成正邪之间的末日决战。 |
| For now, at least, Mr. Biden chose to de-escalate. The American ambassador to the United Nations reminded the Security Council on Sunday afternoon that Russia was “under no threat” and chided Mr. Putin for “another escalatory and unnecessary step that threatens us all.” The White House made it clear that America’s own alert status had not changed. |
| 至少就目前而言，拜登做出了缓和局势的选择。周日下午，美国驻联合国大使提醒安理会，俄罗斯“并未受到威胁”，并指责普京“再次采取了威胁到我们所有人的不必要的升级举措”。白宫明确表示，美国国内的戒备状态没有改变。 |
| But to many in the administration, who spoke on Sunday on the condition of anonymity, it was a stark reminder of how quickly the Ukraine crisis could spin into a direct superpower confrontation — and how it may yet do so, as Mr. Putin tests how far he can go and threatens to use the ultimate weapon to get there. |
| 但许多在周日接受匿名采访的政府内部人士表示，令他们感到触目惊心的是，乌克兰危机可能迅速演变为超级大国的直接对抗——这或许将成为现实，因为普京还在测试他究竟能做到什么地步，并威胁要使用终极武器来达到这一步。 |
| And his outburst highlighted anew the question, coursing through the American intelligence community, about the state of mind of the Russian leader, a man previously described as pragmatic, calculating and cunning. The former director of national intelligence, James R. Clapper Jr., said in public today what some officials have been saying in private since the Russian leader began accusing Ukraine of genocide and claiming it was developing nuclear weapons of its own. |
| 他的冲动也再次突显了一直在美国情报界流传的疑问，即这位总被形容为务实、工于心计且诡计多端的俄罗斯领导人到底出了什么心理问题。今天，前国家情报总监小詹姆斯·R·克拉珀公开吐露了自这位俄罗斯领导人开始指责乌克兰种族灭绝，并声称乌克兰在研发自己的核武器以来，一些官员的窃窃私语。 |
| “I personally think he’s unhinged,” Mr. Clapper said on CNN. “I worry about his acuity and balance.” |
| “我个人认为他已经精神错乱了，”克拉珀在CNN电视台上表示。“我对他的思维的敏锐和稳定程度表示担忧。” |
| Others wonder if Mr. Putin wants to create that impression, to add to Washington’s unease. Similar concerns drove the decision not to have Mr. Biden, in Delaware for the weekend, respond to Mr. Putin’s threats. It was the second time in a week that Mr. Putin has reminded the world, and Washington, that he has a massive arsenal and might be tempted to use it. But what made the latest nuclear outburst notable was that it was staged for television, as Mr. Putin told his generals that he was acting because of the West’s “aggressive comments” about Ukraine. Russia’s most senior military officer, Valery Gerasimov, sat stone-faced as Mr. Putin issued his directive, leaving some wondering what he was thinking, and how he might respond. |
| 还有人怀疑普京可能是故意制造这种假象，以加剧华盛顿的不安。正是这样的担忧导致上周末在特拉华州的拜登没有回应普京的威胁。这是普京在一周内第二次提醒全世界和华盛顿，他拥有庞大的武器库，并且可能有意使用它。但他最近这次核冲动之所以引人侧目，是因为通过电视进行了播出，当时普京告诉他手下的将领，因为西方在乌克兰问题上的“激进言论”，他才决定采取行动。当普京发出指示之时，俄方最高军事指挥官瓦列里·格拉希莫夫就面无表情地坐在那里，让一些人好奇他在想什么，以及他会如何做出回应。 |
| “It was bizarre,” said Graham T. Allison of Harvard University, whose study of the Kennedy administration’s handling of the Cuban missile crisis, “Essence of Decision,” has been read by generations of international relations students — and many of the national security staff surrounding Mr. Biden today. Mr. Putin’s citation of “aggressive comments” as a justification for putting one of the world’s largest nuclear arsenals on alert status seemed both disproportionate and puzzling, he said. “It makes no sense.” |
| “真的很诡异，”哈佛大学的格雷厄姆·T·艾利森表示，他研究肯尼迪政府处理古巴导弹危机的《决策的本质》，是几代国际关系学生和如今拜登身边的国家安全幕僚都读过的著作。他说，普京以“激进言论”为由，将世界上最大的核武库之一置于戒备状态，既不合理也令人费解。“这根本说不通。” |
| Professor Allison, who worked on the project to decommission thousands of nuclear weapons that once belonged to the Soviet Union, which centered on Ukraine, said the incident is “adding to the worry that Putin’s grasp on reality may be loosening.” |
| 艾利森参与过拆除数千枚曾属于苏联的核武器的项目，乌克兰正是其重点，他表示，这一状况“让人更加担忧普京是否在失去对现实的认知”。 |
| Now the question is how General Gerasimov will translate Mr. Putin’s vaguely worded order for “special combat readiness” into action. The answer should be clear in the next day or two. |
| 现在的问题是格拉希莫夫将军要如何将普京措辞含糊的“特殊战备状态”转化为实际行动。答案将在未来一两天内揭晓。 |
| A vast nuclear-detection apparatus run by the United States and its allies monitors Russia’s nuclear forces at all times, and experts said they would not be surprised to see Russian bombers taken out of their hangars and loaded with nuclear weapons, or submarines stuffed with nuclear weapons leave port and head out to sea. |
| 由美国及其盟友运作的大型核探测装置一直监视者俄罗斯的核力量，专家们也表示，若是装载了核武器的俄罗斯轰炸机驶出机库，或是满载核武器的潜艇从港口出海，他们不会感到惊讶。 |
| Both Russia and the United States conduct drills that replicate various levels of nuclear alert status, so the choreography of such moves is well understood by both sides. A deviation from usual practice would almost certainly be noticeable. |
| 俄美都在模拟不同级别的核戒备状态进行演习，因此，双方都相当了解彼此对这类行动的安排。偏离常规的行为基本肯定会被察觉。 |
| The ground-based nuclear forces — the intercontinental ballistic missiles kept in silos by both nations — are always in a state of readiness, a keystone to the strategy of “mutually assured destruction” that helped avoid nuclear exchanges at even the most tense moments of the Cold War. |
| 陆基核力量——即两国在发射井中部署的洲际弹道导弹——始终处于战备状态，正是“相互确保摧毁”战略的基础，哪怕冷战到了最紧张的时刻，这种战略也有助于避免核战爆发。 |
| Whatever one thinks of Mr. Putin’s judgment, the decision to put the forces on alert in the midst of extraordinary tensions over the invasion of Ukraine was highly unusual. It came only a few days after he warned the United States and other NATO powers to stay out of the conflict, adding that “the consequences will be such as you have never seen in your entire history.” |
| 无论普京的判断力出了什么问题，在俄军入侵乌克兰的极度紧张的局势下，让军队进入戒备状态的决定是极不寻常的。就在几天前，普京才警告美国和其他北约国家不要干涉这场冲突，还说“你们将面临历史前所未见的后果”。 |
| It has put an end, at least for now, to the discussions between Russia and the United States about what they do in four years, when the one remaining nuclear treaty between the two countries, called New START, expires. The treaty limits each side to 1,550 deployed strategic weapons, down from tens of thousands at the height of the Cold War. But that does not include smaller, tactical weapons designed for battlefield use, a major worry in the current crisis. Just as Mr. Putin claimed last week that the United States had designs to put such weapons on Ukrainian territory — one of his many justifications for the invasion — American officials fear that Mr. Putin’s next move is to put them in Ukraine, if he succeeds in seizing the country, and in Belarus. |
| 至少目前，俄美之间关于四年后将何去何从的讨论暂时结束了，届时两国之间剩下的唯一核条约——《新削减战略武器条约》——将会到期。该条约将两国可部署的战略武器数量从冷战高峰时的数万件削减到了1550件。但这并不包括为战场使用设计的小型战术武器，这是当前危机中的一个主要担忧点。正如普京上周所说，美国意图在乌克兰领土部署此类武器，这是他为入侵辩护的理由之一。而美国官员则担忧，如果普京成功占领乌克兰和白俄罗斯，他的下一步行动就是将此类武器部署到这两个国家。 |
| Until last week, the two nations were meeting regularly to discuss new arms-control regimes, including a revival of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, which President Donald J. Trump abandoned in 2019. But the United States said last week that it was suspending those talks. |
| 直到上周，两国还在定期会晤，讨论新的军备控制机制，包括重启《中程导弹条约》，特朗普总统于2019年宣布退出该条约。但美国上周表示，将暂停这些谈判。 |
| The immediate concern is that a heightened alert level, by design, loosens the safeguards on nuclear weapons, making it more possible that they could be used, by accident or design. |
| 最紧迫的担忧是，刻意提高戒备级别可能导致核武器的安全保障被削弱，使其更有可能被意外或蓄意使用。 |
| In recent years, Russia has adopted a doctrine that lowers the threshold for using nuclear arms, and for making public threats of unleashing their powers in deadly atomic strikes. |
| 近年来，俄罗斯秉持降低核武器使用门槛的原则，公然威胁通过致命核打击释放自身核力量。 |
| “It’s what he does,” Hans M. Kristensen, the director of the Nuclear Information Project at the Federation of American Scientists, a global policy think tank in Washington, said in an interview. “It’s verbal saber-rattling. We’ll see where he goes with it. This war is four days old and he’s already made nuclear threats twice.” |
| “他的作风就是如此，”位于华盛顿的全球政策智库美国科学家联合会的核信息项目主任汉斯·M·克里斯滕森在接受采访时表示。“这是口头的武力恫吓。我们要看他实际会怎么做。这场战争已经进行了四天，而他已经两次发出核威胁。” |
| Mr. Kristensen noted that in 2014, when Mr. Putin annexed Crimea, the peninsular part of southern Ukraine that juts into the Black Sea, the Russian president also raised the possibility that his forces might turn to atomic weapons. He recalled that when Mr. Putin was asked how he would react to retaliatory sanctions by the West, he “said he was willing to put his nuclear forces on alert.” |
| 克里斯滕森指出，当普京在2014年吞并克里米亚这座延伸入黑海的乌克兰南部半岛时，这位俄罗斯总统也曾提出让军队动用核武的可能性。他回忆称，当被问及将如何应对西方的报复性制裁时，普京“说他准备好了让他的核力量处于戒备状态”。 |
| Mr. Putin’s announcement on Sunday came hours after Europe and the United States announced new sanctions, including banning some Russian banks from using the SWIFT financial messaging system, which settles international accounts, and crippling the Russian central bank’s ability to stabilize a falling ruble. |
| 就在周日普京发出宣言的几小时前，欧洲和美国才宣布了新的制裁措施，包括禁止部分俄罗斯银行使用清算国际账户的金融通信系统——环球银行金融电信协会——从而削弱俄罗斯央行稳定不断贬值的卢布的能力。 |
| Matthew Kroenig, a professor of government and foreign service at Georgetown University who specializes in atomic strategy, said history bristled with cases in which nuclear powers had threatened to unleash their arsenals on one another. He pointed to the Berlin crisis of the late 1950s, the Cuban missile crisis of 1962, a border war between the Soviet Union and China in 1969, the Arab-Israeli war of 1973, and a war between India and Pakistan in 1999. |
| 研究核战略的乔治城大学政府和外事服务教授马修·克鲁尼格表示，历史上并不乏核大国威胁要对彼此动用核武库的先例。他提到了上世纪50年代末的柏林危机、1962年的古巴导弹危机、1969年的苏中边界战争、1973年的阿以战争、以及1999年的印巴战争。 |
| He also noted that Mr. Trump had leveled similar threats against Kim Jong-un, the North Korean leader, after his armed forces conducted a series of long-range missile tests. In his first year in office, 2017, Mr. Trump threatened “fire and fury like the world has never seen.” |
| 他还指出，在朝鲜最高领导人金正恩的武装部队进行了一系列远程导弹试验后，特朗普也曾对他发出类似的威胁。2017年，也就是他就任总统的第一年，特朗普威胁要拿出“世界前所未见的炮火与怒火”。 |
| Mr. Putin’s outburst reminded many nuclear experts of one of Mr. Trump’s tweets, in which he noted: “North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un just stated that the ‘Nuclear Button is on his desk at all times.’ Will someone from his depleted and food starved regime please inform him that I too have a Nuclear Button, but it is a much bigger & more powerful one than his, and my Button works!” |
| 普京的冲动让许多核专家想起了特朗普的一条推文，他当时写道：“朝鲜领导人金正恩刚刚表示，‘核按钮一直都在他的办公桌上’。他那个疲惫而饥饿的政权里能不能有谁告诉他，我也有一个核按钮，而且比他的大多了，也厉害多了，而且我的按钮是可以用的！” |
| Mr. Trump later insisted that the threat was calculated, and that it had brought Mr. Kim to the negotiating table for a series of three high-profile meetings between the two leaders. But the talks collapsed, and Mr. Kim’s nuclear stockpile is now significantly larger, by most unclassified estimates, than it was before Mr. Trump issued the threat. |
| 特朗普后来坚称他有对这一威胁深思熟虑，也成功将金正恩带到了谈判桌前，两位领导人一共进行了三次高调的会谈。但他们的谈判最终破裂，据大多数公开估计，金正恩现在的核储备已经远超出特朗普发出威胁之前的水平。 |
| “Nuclear-armed states can’t fight nuclear wars because it would risk their extinction, but they can and do threaten it,” Dr. Kroenig noted on Sunday. “They play games of nuclear chicken, of raising the risk of war in hopes that the other side will back down and say, ‘Geez, this isn’t worth fighting a nuclear war over.’” |
| “核国家不能打核战，因为这将使其面临灭国的危险，但他们能以此作为威胁，也的确这么做了，”克鲁尼格在周日表示。“他们在玩核版本的懦夫博弈，通过增加战争风险，以期待对方做出让步说，‘算啦，真不值得为此打一场核战。’” |
| Mr. Kristensen of the Federation of American Scientists said the threats could be empty unless matched with evidence that nuclear weapons are being removed from storage and prepared for action. |
| 美国科学家联合会的克里斯滕森表示，除非有证据表明核武器正在从仓库中被移出，而且攻击行动也迫在眉睫，否则这种威胁很可能是无效的。 |
| “Unless we see that kind of thing,” Mr. Kristensen said, “it’s rhetoric — it’s madman brinkmanship.” |
| “除非我们看到那样的情况，”克里斯滕森说，“不然这就是说大话——是狂人的战争边缘策略。” |
OK阅读网 版权所有(C)2017 | 联系我们