英国制裁强化俄罗斯人反西方情绪

When Russian state television anchor Olga Skabeeva wrapped up her show 60 Minutes on Tuesday night, she had a brief but powerful conclusion: “We’re not afraid of sanctions, we have missiles!”

俄罗斯国家电视台主持人奥尔加•斯嘉碧娃(Olga Skabeeva)周二晚间在结束她的节目“60分钟”(60 Minutes)时，做出了简短但有力的结论：“我们不害怕制裁，我们有导弹。”

Her words seemed to encapsulate Moscow’s outrage and defiance in the face of British moves to punish it for the poisoning of former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal with a rare nerve agent of a type that only the Soviet Union was known to have made.

她的言论似乎概括了俄罗斯面对英国对其采取惩罚措施的愤怒和反抗，英国惩罚俄罗斯的原因是，俄罗斯用一种已知只有前苏联制造过的罕见神经毒剂，向俄罗斯前双面间谍谢尔盖•斯克里帕尔(Sergei Skripal)下毒。

Russian government officials, lawmakers and analysts are all painting the British government’s charge as an insult, a threat and proof that Russia must stand strong and united against a hostile western world bent on destroying it.

俄罗斯政府官员、立法者和分析人士都称英国政府的这番指控为侮辱、威胁，而且证明面对心怀敌意、决意毁灭俄罗斯的西方世界，俄罗斯必须坚强和团结。

Coming just days ahead of presidential elections on Sunday expected to confirm Vladimir Putin in office by a landslide, the stand-off with the UK is being used by the government and official media to boost support for an aggressive course of Russian great power ambitions and nuclear posturing.

距离本周日俄罗斯总统选举还有两天时间，预计选举将以压倒性票数确认弗拉基米尔•普京(Vladimir Putin)的继续执政。俄罗斯政府和官方媒体正利用俄罗斯与英国的这场僵局，扩大民众对俄罗斯大国抱负强硬路线以及核姿态的支持。

Two weeks ago, Mr Putin claimed in his state of the nation address that Russia had developed several new weapons systems capable of carrying nuclear payloads that he characterised as invincible. His move disappointed many Russians who had hoped that he would put a focus on economic reform for his next term, and shocked many foreign observers who view his nuclear posturing as a sign for a new arms race with the US.

两周前，普京在他的国情咨文中声称，俄罗斯已开发出几个新的能够搭载核弹头的武器系统，他称这些武器无敌。他的行为让很多原本希望他将在下个任期关注经济改革的俄罗斯人失望，同时也震惊了很多外国观察人士，他们认为他的这种核姿态表明俄罗斯将与美国开展新的军备竞赛。

But with their country once again thrust into a confrontation with the west, few Russians dare to question Mr Putin’s belligerent rhetoric.

然而在俄罗斯再次与西方展开对峙时，几乎没有俄罗斯人胆敢质疑普京的好斗言论。

This week, Maria Zakharova, the punchy foreign ministry spokeswoman, insinuated that Mrs May’s ultimatum to Moscow to explain the poison attack constituted a military, or even nuclear, threat, against which Mr Putin’s new wonder weapons offered protection.

本周，俄罗斯外交部言辞犀利的女发言人玛丽亚•扎哈罗娃(Maria Zakharova)暗示，英国首相向俄罗斯发出的要求俄罗斯就下毒袭击事件做出解释的最后通牒构成了一种军事甚至核威胁，而普京宣布的新的神奇武器可以为俄罗斯提供保护。

“Everyone must understand that after what the president spoke about, nobody can come out in parliament and say: I give Russia 24 hours,” she said. “We are talking about London, the capital of a nuclear power. Whom are they giving 24 hours?”

“在普京总统的演讲后，所有人都必须明白，(英国)议会中没人能说：我给俄罗斯24小时，”她说，“我们说的是伦敦，核能之都。他们在给谁24小时呢?”

Many ordinary Russians share the indignation. “This is why we support our president,” said Anton Zaitsev, a security guard in his 30s in Moscow. “He has his weaknesses, but he is right in taking our country’s security seriously. Now they are trying to add more sanctions against Russia, again. They have no right to do that. Great Britain, who are you anyway?”

很多俄罗斯普通人也感到愤慨。“这就是我们支持我们的总统的原因，”莫斯科30多岁的保安安东•扎伊采夫(Anton Zaitsev)表示，“他有缺点，但他认真对待我们国家的安全问题，这是正确的。如今，他们试图再次扩大针对俄罗斯的制裁。他们没有权利这么做。大不列颠，你又是谁啊?”

Valentina, a retired secretary who refused to give her surname, said it was western countries that were warmongers, and Russia needed to protect herself from them. “We are a peace-loving nation. Nobody has suffered from war as we have. We, my generation, we used to say: If only there isn’t war again!” she said. “That’s what our nuclear weapons are for, to ensure that nobody attacks us ever again.”

拒绝透露姓氏的退休秘书瓦伦蒂娜(Valentina)说，西方国家才是战争贩子，俄罗斯需要保护自己不受侵犯。“我们是一个热爱和平的国家。没有人像我们这样受过战争之苦。我们，我这一代人，过去常常说：要是不再有战争就好了!”她说，“这就是我们的核武器的目的，要确保再没有人攻击我们。”

War has traditionally featured among Russians’ biggest fears. The Soviet Union suffered more than 20m casualties in the second world war, inflicting losses on almost every family. Soviet propaganda exploited the memories of the war’s horrors to quell dissatisfaction over a stagnant economy.

战争历来是俄罗斯人最恐惧的事之一。在二战中，苏联伤亡人数超过2000万，几乎每个家庭都遭受了损失。苏联的宣传机构曾利用人们对战争的恐怖记忆来平息对经济停滞的不满。

A deep-rooted anxiety was reawakened following Moscow’s invasion of Crimea, its involvement in the war in eastern Ukraine, and from late 2015 its military campaign in Syria. Russian sociologists say the public felt that in those conflicts, their country was in an undeclared confrontation with the west and, more specifically, with the US.

俄罗斯入侵克里米亚、参与乌克兰东部战争、以及从2015年底在叙利亚进行的军事行动，唤醒了人们深埋心底的忧虑。俄罗斯社会学家表示，公众感到，在这些冲突中，他们的国家与西方——更确切地说，与美国——处于未公开宣战的对抗之中。

In the last poll Levada, the country’s only independent pollster, conducted on the topic in September last year, one-fifth of respondents still said they felt constant fear of a new world war.

在俄罗斯仅有的独立民调机构列瓦达(Levada)去年9月就该话题进行的民意调查中，五分之一的受访者仍然表示，他们始终对新的世界大战感觉恐惧。

Some Russian analysts say those fears had in recent months begun to recede.

俄罗斯一些分析人士表示，近几个月来，这些担忧开始逐渐消散。

“After Russia liberated Aleppo, and after the turn in the Syrian war and as Isis started collapsing under Russian strikes, we noticed a lowering of war fears,” says Valery Fedorov, director of the Russian Public Opinion Research Foundation (VCIOM), a leading pollster that works with the Kremlin. “Now, Russians are turning the focus of their attention from external to internal issues, on to economic and social problems.”

“在俄罗斯解放阿勒颇后，在叙利亚战争局势扭转之后，以及当‘伊拉克和黎凡特伊斯兰国’(ISIS)在俄罗斯打击下开始溃败时，我们注意到人们对战争的恐惧在减弱，”为克里姆林宫工作的领先民调机构全俄社会舆论研究中心(VCIOM)主任瓦列里•费奥多罗夫(Valery Fedorov)表示，“现在，俄罗斯人正把注意力从外部问题转向内部问题，关注经济和社会问题。”

According to VCIOM, security and the military lagged far behind social and economic issues like healthcare, poverty and education in ordinary Russians’ views of the most important topics of Mr Putin’s state of the nation address earlier this month.

据全俄社会舆论研究中心表示，俄罗斯普通百姓认为，在普京于本月初发表的国情咨文中最重要的话题中，国家安全和军事问题的重要性远远落后于医疗、贫困、教育等社会和经济问题。

And yet, feelings of patriotism and pride are easily rekindled. When asked in the VCIOM poll what they liked best about the speech, the part where Mr Putin boasted about new nuclear weapons topped the list.

不过，俄罗斯人的爱国主义和民族自豪感很容易被重新点燃。全俄社会舆论研究中心在民调中提问受访者对于此次演讲最喜欢的部分，结果普京吹嘘新核武器的部分位列第一。

Many Russians confirm such conflicting feelings, saying that while they are tired of a state of constant mobilisation against the west, they feel that Russia must remain vigilant against attempts to weaken their nation.

很多俄罗斯人都证实了这种矛盾心情，他们称尽管自己厌倦了不断被动员反对西方的状态，但他们认为俄罗斯必须对其他国家试图削弱俄罗斯的企图保持警觉。

“My daughter has friends who live in the UK and in America. We know that they are good people, and we know things are not all good here,” says Valentina. “But when we are being threatened, we must push back.”

“我女儿有朋友在英国和美国生活。我们知道他们是好人，我们知道这里也并非尽善尽美，”瓦伦蒂娜表示，“但当我们受到威胁时，我们必须反击。”