The world order has shifted now that Russia has invaded Ukraine

The world order has shifted now that Russia has invaded Ukraine

Transcript¹

Ukraine's government says it's facing a full-scale attack from multiple directions. NPR's Rachel Martin talks to Daniel Fried, a former assistant secretary of state for Europe, about the invasion.

RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:

We are following this breaking news today. Russia has invaded Ukraine on multiple fronts. The sound of sirens jolting² families awake in Ukraine, explosions rang out this morning in several major cities - this after Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that his country would conduct a military operation in the east of Ukraine. International reaction has been swift because the Russian attack has come on multiple fronts, as we've noted³. EU leaders say Russia is grossly violating international law, undermining European and global security. President Biden and leaders of the G-7 will meet this morning to discuss next steps. Daniel Fried served as assistant secretary of state for Europe and is now a distinguished⁴ fellow at the Atlantic Council. Ambassador Fried, thank you for joining us this morning.

DANIEL FRIED: I wish it were under better circumstances.

MARTIN: Indeed. Former chairman of the Joint⁵ Chiefs of Staff Mike Mullen talked to us earlier and said the world order has shifted today. Do you agree?

FRIED: Yes. I don't know the military situation, but clearly Putin has demonstrated that he will act like an aggressive dictator abroad, as well as a despot at home. That is dangerous. And Putin's aims seem to be to destroy Ukrainian sovereignty but also upend the order that has kept the general peace in Europe since 1945. This is dangerous. And the Biden administration was right all along when they were warning of this. And now it falls to the Americans to do what we're supposed to do, which is organize the democratic community, the free world as we used to call it, to determine our long-range response against Putin and to determine how to help the people of Ukraine who are fighting for their country.

MARTIN: Let's talk about both of those objectives. First, the short-term need - helping⁶ Ukrainians who are living through this right now. I mean, we know the Biden administration has issued sanctions already. They intend to do so, we expect, today. But those aren't going to have an effect for those people who are, at this moment, fleeing for their own safety.

FRIED: I don't know, and I can't get a clear sense of the actual military situation. How far are Putin's armies driving? What do they intend to hold? What do they intend to seize? But the United States should continue to help the Ukrainian people defend their own country. That doesn't mean American troops on the ground. I don't think President Biden is going to change his mind about that. There are plenty of things that we could do. We can provide weapons to the Ukrainians. They need it. Let them tell us what they need, and we should provide it. The Ukrainians will fight. They cannot defeat the Russians, but they can force Putin to fight a major war. And that is going to have consequences. I'm not sure the Russian people are ready to see Russians killing⁷ Ukrainians for no good reason, except a dictator's sense of vanity and historic destiny. So we need the United States and the free world generally need to turn Putin's aggression⁸, even if it's a successful short-term aggression, into a long-term strategic defeat.

MARTIN: How does that happen? I mean, do sanctions truly make a difference? There's nothing in his history to suggest that he's vulnerable to economic sanctions.

FRIED: I'm not sure I agree with that. He says he doesn't care. The Russians will sneer⁹ at them, and they will almost certainly impose counter sanctions and other measures, as President Biden has rightly warned. But sanctions that hurt the Russian economy can have an impact. Here's a bit of history. We put on sanctions against the Soviet¹⁰ economy and did so in a kind of inconsistent, muddled¹¹ way. We thought they were failing. But look what happened. The Soviet economy was unable to use Western credit and investment to make up for its failure to reform, and it fell apart. We need to think in longer terms of how to put pressure on Putin's Russia so that he does not succeed. He can't modernize¹² the economy because he's a despot. His whole system is a kind of kleptocracy. There's no real entrepreneurship because of the kind of mafia state will grab it all. We need to put pressure on the Russian economy long term. That's what sanctions can do. The bad news is that can take years. The good news...

MARTIN: Right. Is Ukraine sacrificed in the meantime?

FRIED: I know, and that is - I have friends in Kyiv and Lviv. This is not an abstract country, not to me and not to lots of others. And the Ukrainians are fighting for their lives. We need to help them. The Ukrainian foreign minister, after Russian attacks began, tweeted out a checklist of things we could do, which was pretty good. He didn't say send the 82nd Airborne to fight for us. He said, help us fight for ourselves. Sanction the Russians. Help us with humanitarian¹³ assistance. Help us with weapons - pretty good list. We ought to do it. We ought to show Putin that he cannot intimidate¹⁴ us into abandoning Ukraine. And the Ukrainians are showing great courage. The address of President Zelensky to the Russian people yesterday was strong, and it was - it made Putin look like, you know, a weird¹⁵ tyrant¹⁶ because Zelenskyy was saying to the Russians, we're not your enemy.

MARTIN: Ambassador, do you believe Vladimir Putin's ambitions end with Ukraine?

FRIED: Of course, they don't. Of course, they don't. He wants Ukraine because it's part of his version of a Russian empire. He wants Belarus to be part of that empire. And he also wants Russian power, a Russian zone of domination to extend as far west as possible. He has, in his mind, a map of the furthest extent of the Russian empire. He's talked about Russia's historic boundaries. So Finland, Poland, the Baltic states - no, he doesn't want to conquer them, but he wants them under his control. He wants them under his shadow.

MARTIN: Ambassador Daniel Fried, former assistant secretary of state for Europe, we so appreciate you coming on with your perspective and context. Thank you.

FRIED: Thanks for the opportunity.

1 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

2 jolting   

adj.令人震惊的

参考例句：

• 'she should be all right from the plane's jolting by now. “飞机震荡应该过了。
• This is perhaps the most jolting comment of all. 这恐怕是最令人震惊的评论。

3 noted   

adj.著名的，知名的

参考例句：

• The local hotel is noted for its good table.当地的那家酒店以餐食精美而著称。
• Jim is noted for arriving late for work.吉姆上班迟到出了名。

4 distinguished   

adj.卓越的，杰出的，著名的

参考例句：

• Elephants are distinguished from other animals by their long noses.大象以其长长的鼻子显示出与其他动物的不同。
• A banquet was given in honor of the distinguished guests.宴会是为了向贵宾们致敬而举行的。

5 joint   

adj.联合的，共同的；n.关节，接合处；v.连接，贴合

参考例句：

• I had a bad fall,which put my shoulder out of joint.我重重地摔了一跤，肩膀脫臼了。
• We wrote a letter in joint names.我们联名写了封信。

6 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

7 killing   

n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财

参考例句：

• Investors are set to make a killing from the sell-off.投资者准备清仓以便大赚一笔。
• Last week my brother made a killing on Wall Street.上个周我兄弟在华尔街赚了一大笔。

8 aggression   

n.进攻，侵略，侵犯，侵害

参考例句：

• So long as we are firmly united, we need fear no aggression.只要我们紧密地团结，就不必惧怕外来侵略。
• Her view is that aggression is part of human nature.她认为攻击性是人类本性的一部份。

9 sneer   

v.轻蔑；嘲笑；n.嘲笑，讥讽的言语

参考例句：

• He said with a sneer.他的话中带有嘲笑之意。
• You may sneer,but a lot of people like this kind of music.你可以嗤之以鼻，但很多人喜欢这种音乐。

10 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。

11 muddled   

adj.混乱的；糊涂的；头脑昏昏然的v.弄乱，弄糟( muddle的过去式)；使糊涂；对付，混日子

参考例句：

• He gets muddled when the teacher starts shouting. 老师一喊叫他就心烦意乱。
• I got muddled up and took the wrong turning. 我稀里糊涂地拐错了弯。 来自《简明英汉词典》

12 modernize   

vt.使现代化，使适应现代的需要

参考例句：

• It was their manifest failure to modernize the country's industries.他们使国家进行工业现代化，明显失败了。
• There is a pressing need to modernise our electoral system.我们的选举制度迫切需要现代化。

13 humanitarian   

n.人道主义者，博爱者，基督凡人论者

参考例句：

• She has many humanitarian interests and contributes a lot to them.她拥有很多慈善事业，并作了很大的贡献。
• The British government has now suspended humanitarian aid to the area.英国政府现已暂停对这一地区的人道主义援助。

14 intimidate   

vt.恐吓，威胁

参考例句：

• You think you can intimidate people into doing what you want?你以为你可以威胁别人做任何事？
• The first strike capacity is intended mainly to intimidate adversary.第一次攻击的武力主要是用来吓阻敌方的。

15 weird   

adj.古怪的，离奇的；怪诞的，神秘而可怕的

参考例句：

• From his weird behaviour,he seems a bit of an oddity.从他不寻常的行为看来，他好像有点怪。
• His weird clothes really gas me.他的怪衣裳简直笑死人。

16 tyrant   

n.暴君，专制的君主，残暴的人

参考例句：

• The country was ruled by a despotic tyrant.该国处在一个专制暴君的统治之下。
• The tyrant was deaf to the entreaties of the slaves.暴君听不到奴隶们的哀鸣。