美国国家公共电台 NPR--Moscow prepares to annex 4 Russian-occupied regions in Ukraine

Moscow prepares to annex¹ 4 Russian-occupied regions in Ukraine

Transcript²

NPR's Leila Fadel talks to PBS NewsHour's Simon Ostrovsky about what the earlier annexation³ of Crimea might suggest for what happens now for the next areas Russia is trying to annex.

LEILA FADEL, HOST:

Billboards⁴ in Moscow's Red Square declare that four Russian-occupied regions of Ukraine are now part of Russia. Russian President Vladimir Putin is expected to announce the annexation of those provinces following so-called referendums, widely denounced as shams⁶, that suggested overwhelming support for becoming part of the Russian Federation⁷. It's reminiscent of the annexation of Crimea in 2014. But could 2022 be different? Simon Ostrovsky is a PBS NewsHour correspondent who has covered Russia, Ukraine and the region for years. And he joins us now. Hi, Simon.

SIMON OSTROVSKY: Good morning.

FADEL: Good morning. OK. So now that these so-called referendums are done and the outcomes show support for Russian annexation - of course, not a surprise after all these reports of coerced⁸ voting - what does that mean for Ukrainians in these four provinces?

OSTROVSKY: Well, I think that, you know, what people don't realize is that the changes that are taking place in these regions started as soon as the Russian authorities came in.

FADEL: OK.

OSTROVSKY: It's not like these referendums and annexation happen and then, overnight, it's Russia and the Russian flags go up.

FADEL: Right.

OSTROVSKY: The Russian flags have been there for months. The Russian ruble has been in circulation. Schools have been forced to use the Russian language. Russian laws have been imposed. And any sort of manifestation⁹ of Ukrainian identity has already been wiped away from the areas where these referenda - these so-called referenda were organized. But the crazy thing is that Russia doesn't even control the entirety of the regions in which it hosted these fake referenda. It's got - it's in an act of war on the borders of each of these regions.

FADEL: Right. Now, you were in Crimea when a similar staged referendum was held there. How was that different than what you saw here in these four Ukrainian provinces? You've already pointed¹⁰ out there's active war all around these areas.

OSTROVSKY: Well, the main difference is that Russia pretended like it wasn't involved in the Crimea referendum. But it was very similar in the sense that it was hastily organized. People didn't have a lot of time to think about what they were voting for. There were no international observers who could guarantee the legitimacy¹¹ of the process. And around the same time, the Scottish independence referendum was happening in the U.K. People over there had over a year to ponder what the consequences of, you know, changing sovereignty in their region would mean and what that would look like.

FADEL: Yeah.

OSTROVSKY: People had literal weeks in Crimea. And the other thing that you've got to remember is that when Russia comes into power in a region, that means that people who don't support it live in fear. They leave.

FADEL: Right.

OSTROVSKY: So you have a self-selecting sort of group of people voting in these things in the first place because everybody who feared Russia escaped when the fighting first started in Crimea, when the sort of little green men took over that Russia was pretending weren't their soldiers.

FADEL: Now, with so little access to people inside these provinces because of Russia's occupation, do we actually know what people want in these territories?

OSTROVSKY: Well, I don't think we'll ever find out, you know, what the true level of support for joining Russia was in these regions. And I don't - you know, nobody would claim that there's no support for that. But this isn't the way that you find that out.

FADEL: Right.

OSTROVSKY: You don't do a poll on the territory of somebody else's country and then, you know, force the result down their throat...

FADEL: Right.

OSTROVSKY: ...And tell them, well, that's that. That's life. Russia would never allow another country to go to one of its ethnic¹² regions, of which there are many, and organize a poll there for independence of these non-Russian ethnic regions that are in the Russian Federation. I don't see why it should happen in Ukraine and how that can be a justification¹³ for further hostilities¹⁴, which seems to be the real purpose of organizing this because we in the West obviously know that these are fake, but for the Russian public, this is something that Putin can hold up and say this is his excuse for the violence that's being perpetrated in Ukraine and has been perpetrated.

FADEL: So in the 30 seconds we have left, I mean, Ukraine and its allies, of course, have condemned¹⁵ this, what is seen as a sham⁵ of a vote. And that happened in 2014 in Crimea. But Crimea remains¹⁶ annexed¹⁷. So is this international outrage¹⁸ of today any more powerful than what we saw then?

OSTROVSKY: The world is arming Ukraine. And Ukraine is winning on the battlefield. And Russia can only control those places where it has soldiers. And I think that's the main difference between what happened in 2014 and what's happening now. Ukraine has a chance of winning this war.

FADEL: Simon Ostrovsky is a special correspondent with PBS NewsHour. Thanks so much for your time.

OSTROVSKY: Good speaking to you.

1 annex   

vt.兼并，吞并；n.附属建筑物

参考例句：

• It plans to annex an England company in order to enlarge the market.它计划兼并一家英国公司以扩大市场。
• The annex has been built on to the main building.主楼配建有附属的建筑物。

2 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。

3 annexation   

n.吞并，合并

参考例句：

• He mentioned the Japanese annexation of Korea in 1910 .他提及1910年日本对朝鲜的吞并。
• I regard the question of annexation as belonging exclusively to the United States and Texas.我认为合并的问题，完全属于德克萨斯和美国之间的事。

4 billboards   

n.广告牌( billboard的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Large billboards have disfigured the scenery. 大型告示板已破坏了景色。 来自辞典例句
• Then, put the logo in magazines and on billboards without telling anyone what it means. 接着我们把这个商标刊在杂志和广告看板上，却不跟任何人透漏它的涵意。 来自常春藤生活英语杂志-2006年4月号

5 sham   

n./adj.假冒(的)，虚伪(的)

参考例句：

• They cunningly played the game of sham peace.他们狡滑地玩弄假和平的把戏。
• His love was a mere sham.他的爱情是虚假的。

6 shams   

假象( sham的名词复数 )； 假货； 虚假的行为（或感情、言语等）； 假装…的人

参考例句：

• Are those real diamonds or only shams? 那些是真钻石还是赝品？
• Tear away their veil of shams! 撕开他们的假面具吧！

7 federation   

n.同盟，联邦，联合，联盟，联合会

参考例句：

• It is a federation of 10 regional unions.它是由十个地方工会结合成的联合会。
• Mr.Putin was inaugurated as the President of the Russian Federation.普京正式就任俄罗斯联邦总统。

8 coerced   

v.迫使做( coerce的过去式和过去分词 )；强迫；（以武力、惩罚、威胁等手段）控制；支配

参考例句：

• They were coerced into negotiating a settlement. 他们被迫通过谈判解决。
• He was coerced into making a confession. 他被迫招供。 来自《简明英汉词典》

9 manifestation   

n.表现形式；表明；现象

参考例句：

• Her smile is a manifestation of joy.她的微笑是她快乐的表现。
• What we call mass is only another manifestation of energy.我们称之为质量的东西只是能量的另一种表现形态。

10 pointed   

adj.尖的，直截了当的

参考例句：

• He gave me a very sharp pointed pencil.他给我一支削得非常尖的铅笔。
• She wished to show Mrs.John Dashwood by this pointed invitation to her brother.她想通过对达茨伍德夫人提出直截了当的邀请向她的哥哥表示出来。

11 legitimacy   

n.合法，正当

参考例句：

• The newspaper was directly challenging the government's legitimacy.报纸直接质疑政府的合法性。
• Managing from the top down,we operate with full legitimacy.我们进行由上而下的管理有充分的合法性。

12 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。

13 justification   

n.正当的理由；辩解的理由

参考例句：

• There's no justification for dividing the company into smaller units. 没有理由把公司划分成小单位。
• In the young there is a justification for this feeling. 在年轻人中有这种感觉是有理由的。

14 hostilities   

n.战争；敌意(hostility的复数)；敌对状态；战事

参考例句：

• Mexico called for an immediate cessation of hostilities. 墨西哥要求立即停止敌对行动。
• All the old hostilities resurfaced when they met again. 他们再次碰面时，过去的种种敌意又都冒了出来。

15 condemned   

adj. 被责难的, 被宣告有罪的 动词condemn的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• He condemned the hypocrisy of those politicians who do one thing and say another. 他谴责了那些说一套做一套的政客的虚伪。
• The policy has been condemned as a regressive step. 这项政策被认为是一种倒退而受到谴责。

16 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

17 annexed   

[法] 附加的，附属的

参考例句：

• Germany annexed Austria in 1938. 1938年德国吞并了奥地利。
• The outlying villages were formally annexed by the town last year. 那些偏远的村庄于去年正式被并入该镇。

18 outrage   

n.暴行，侮辱，愤怒；vt.凌辱，激怒

参考例句：

• When he heard the news he reacted with a sense of outrage.他得悉此事时义愤填膺。
• We should never forget the outrage committed by the Japanese invaders.我们永远都不应该忘记日本侵略者犯下的暴行。