美国国家公共电台 NPR--Russia's foreign minister visits Brazil on a swing through Latin America

Russia's foreign minister visits Brazil on a swing through Latin America

Transcript¹

Brazil is offering to be a peacemaker between Russia and Ukraine as Russia's foreign minister pays a visit to Brazil's capital Brasilia.

A MART?NEZ, HOST:

Russia's foreign minister is traveling through Latin America with stops in Cuba, Nicaragua, Venezuela and Brazil. And that is where Sergey Lavrov is today. His tour is raising concern in the West, especially after Brazil's president just met with Chinese leader Xi Jinping in China. For more on this, we're joined by NPR's South America correspondent Carrie Kahn. She's in Rio de Janeiro. Carrie, why is Russia's foreign minister coming to Brazil? Is there an official agenda?

CARRIE KAHN, BYLINE²: Yes. First, he'll meet with Brazil's foreign minister. The two met at a G20 conference last month. And recently a top foreign policy adviser³ to Brazil's president met with Putin. So there have been a lot of meetings of late. In the afternoon, Lavrov is expected to give a message to the press - no questions, just a statement. Russia and Brazil do a lot of business together. Russian fertilizer is vital to Brazil's huge agribusiness here, and - a lot of which is sold to China. So there's that in the talks, too.

MART?NEZ: OK. So I got to imagine the war in Ukraine will also come up. Brazil's...

KAHN: Of course.

MART?NEZ: ...New leftist president, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, has refused to condemn⁴ Russia's invasion of Ukraine. He says they're a neutral world player, and they do business with everyone. Carrie, is that what Lavrov came to really talk about - the relationship between Russia and Brazil?

KAHN: Some say yes, and it's key for Lavrov to be seen in an international setting in a major democracy, giving the Russian perspective on the war. For what Brazil gets out of this, I called Oliver Stuenkel. He's a foreign policy expert at Brazil's FGV university, and I asked him that. He says it's to get the West to see that Lula has a lot of options in the world.

OLIVER STUENKEL: That's exactly what Brazil wants. It's basically sending the message to the United States and to Europe that says, look, we're really deepening ties to these countries. What do you have to offer?

KAHN: But Stuenkel also says Lula has to be careful not to take that too far and anger the U.S. and European allies, which - they're already unhappy that he won't, like you said, won't condemn Russia's invasion and won't sell ammunition⁵ to Ukraine. And in China - he was just there, and he accused the U.S. of encouraging the war, saying it took two nations to start it and will take many more to end it. He does like to be the - seen as this neutral world player, and he wants to form this so-called peace club and be a mediator⁶ with other non-aligned nations to broker⁷ an end to the war.

MART?NEZ: All right. So what other topics do you expect can come up?

KAHN: Well, this is really interesting. This has come up a lot between Russia and Brazil lately. And that's spies. Three Russian spies were just discovered working with fake Brazilian IDs. It's just this fascinating story, like right out of that series, "The Americans"...

MART?NEZ: Yeah. Yeah.

KAHN: ...About sleeper⁸ spies in U.S. society. And the whole incident has triggered much concern about the ease of getting fake Brazilian documents. And I wanted to know about that. And I called this detective with the Brazilian Federal Police to ask what it is about Brazil that makes it so desirable for spies. His name is Gustavo Greiser, and he says Brazil's multiracial and ethnic⁹ melting pots lets all sorts of people blend in here. And it's a good backstory for blond-eyed blue Russians with odd Portuguese¹⁰ accents. Also, he says, Brazil's passport is widely accepted in the world.

GUSTAVO GREISER: We have good diplomatic relationships with many countries. We don't have much enemies, so it's a good passport to travel to different places of the world.

KAHN: One of the discovered spies in jail here - is in jail here, and Russia says they want him back. They're claiming he's a drug trafficker. So lots of interesting conversations today.

MART?NEZ: That's NPR's Carrie Kahn. Fascinating stuff, Carrie. Thanks.

KAHN: You're welcome.

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 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

3 adviser   

n.劝告者，顾问

参考例句：

• They employed me as an adviser.他们聘请我当顾问。
• Our department has engaged a foreign teacher as phonetic adviser.我们系已经聘请了一位外籍老师作为语音顾问。

4 condemn   

vt.谴责，指责；宣判(罪犯)，判刑

参考例句：

• Some praise him,whereas others condemn him.有些人赞扬他，而有些人谴责他。
• We mustn't condemn him on mere suppositions.我们不可全凭臆测来指责他。

5 ammunition   

n.军火，弹药

参考例句：

• A few of the jeeps had run out of ammunition.几辆吉普车上的弹药已经用光了。
• They have expended all their ammunition.他们把弹药用光。

6 mediator   

n.调解人，中介人

参考例句：

• He always takes the role of a mediator in any dispute.他总是在争论中充当调停人的角色。
• He will appear in the role of mediator.他将出演调停者。

7 broker   

n.中间人，经纪人；v.作为中间人来安排

参考例句：

• He baited the broker by promises of higher commissions.他答应给更高的佣金来引诱那位经纪人。
• I'm a real estate broker.我是不动产经纪人。

8 sleeper   

n.睡眠者，卧车，卧铺

参考例句：

• I usually go up to London on the sleeper. 我一般都乘卧车去伦敦。
• But first he explained that he was a very heavy sleeper. 但首先他解释说自己睡觉很沉。

9 ethnic   

adj.人种的，种族的，异教徒的

参考例句：

• This music would sound more ethnic if you played it in steel drums.如果你用钢鼓演奏，这首乐曲将更具民族特色。
• The plan is likely only to aggravate ethnic frictions.这一方案很有可能只会加剧种族冲突。

10 Portuguese   

n.葡萄牙人；葡萄牙语

参考例句：

• They styled their house in the Portuguese manner.他们仿照葡萄牙的风格设计自己的房子。
• Her family is Portuguese in origin.她的家族是葡萄牙血统。