VOA常速英语2007年-Army Chief in Russia Accuses West of Corroding

By Anya Ardayeva
Moscow
16 December 2007

Russia's top general has sharply criticized U.S. plans for an anti-ballistic missile shield in Europe and accused the West of using the arms control system as a political tool. He warned that Russia could launch a ballistic missile in response to the launch of a U.S. interceptor missile in Europe. Anya Ardayeva reports from Moscow.

 

Speaking at a news conference broadcast on state television, Russia's Army Chief of Staff Yuri Baluyevsky accused the West of deliberately¹ turning an agreement on European arms control into an instrument to achieve what he called "political aims" against Russia.

He warned that if the U.S. launches its interceptor missiles, Russia could inadvertently strike in response. Mr.Baluyevsky said that a launch of an anti-ballistic missile can be classified as a launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile, with all the corresponding consequences, adding that Russia's defenses were controlled by an automated³ system.

The U.S. says its proposed missile shield in Europe is designed to protect NATO countries - and Russia - from possible missile attacks by Iran. But Baluyevsky says U.S. offers to Russia in negotiations⁴ over the missile defense² shield were "unacceptable" and U.S. plans could not be interpreted in any other way than being aimed against Russia.

The Chief of Staff also accused NATO of boosting its military potential and criticized the alliance's expansion to the Russian border. But he said that Moscow has no plans for massing troops despite being free to do so after Russia suspended the Conventional Forces in Europe treaty.

 

On December 12, Russia walked away from the CFE treaty, a key Cold War agreement that limits the stationing of troops and heavy weapons from the Atlantic Ocean to Russia's Ural mountains.

Moscow said it is pulling out of the CFE because of the failure of 26 NATO members to ratify⁵ the revised 1999 version of the treaty.

NATO and the Warsaw Pact⁶, the east and central European alliance that was led by the Soviet⁷ Union, signed the treaty limiting conventional weapons deployment⁹ in 1990. It was updated in 1999 after the collapse¹⁰ of the Soviet Union.

Russia ratified¹¹ the renewed document in 2004, but NATO countries have said they will only ratify if Moscow lives up to a pledge to pull its troops out of former Soviet republics Georgia and Moldova.

Meanwhile, on Friday, Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko expressed support for Moscow as he held two days of talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Minsk.

Earlier, Mr. Putin said Russia could counter U.S. plans to deploy⁸ its missile defense system in Poland and the Czech Republic by deploying¹² missiles in Belarus, located between Russia and Poland.

1 deliberately   

adv.审慎地；蓄意地；故意地

参考例句：

• The girl gave the show away deliberately.女孩故意泄露秘密。
• They deliberately shifted off the argument.他们故意回避这个论点。

2 defense   

n.防御，保卫；[pl.]防务工事；辩护，答辩

参考例句：

• The accused has the right to defense.被告人有权获得辩护。
• The war has impacted the area with military and defense workers.战争使那个地区挤满了军队和防御工程人员。

3 automated   

a.自动化的

参考例句：

• The entire manufacturing process has been automated. 整个生产过程已自动化。
• Automated Highway System (AHS) is recently regarded as one subsystem of Intelligent Transport System (ITS). 近年来自动公路系统(Automated Highway System,AHS)，作为智能运输系统的子系统之一越来越受到重视。

4 negotiations   

协商( negotiation的名词复数 )； 谈判； 完成（难事）； 通过

参考例句：

• negotiations for a durable peace 为持久和平而进行的谈判
• Negotiations have failed to establish any middle ground. 谈判未能达成任何妥协。

5 ratify   

v.批准，认可，追认

参考例句：

• The heads of two governments met to ratify the peace treaty.两国政府首脑会晤批准和平条约。
• The agreement have to be ratify by the board.该协议必须由董事会批准。

6 pact   

n.合同，条约，公约，协定

参考例句：

• The two opposition parties made an electoral pact.那两个反对党订了一个有关选举的协定。
• The trade pact between those two countries came to an end.那两国的通商协定宣告结束。

7 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。

8 deploy   

v.（军）散开成战斗队形，布置，展开

参考例句：

• The infantry began to deploy at dawn.步兵黎明时开始进入战斗位置。
• The president said he had no intention of deploying ground troops.总统称并不打算部署地面部队。

9 deployment   

n. 部署,展开

参考例句：

• He has inquired out the deployment of the enemy troops. 他已查出敌军的兵力部署情况。
• Quality function deployment (QFD) is a widely used customer-driven quality, design and manufacturing management tool. 质量功能展开(quality function deployment,QFD)是一个广泛应用的顾客需求驱动的设计、制造和质量管理工具。

10 collapse   

vi.累倒；昏倒；倒塌；塌陷

参考例句：

• The country's economy is on the verge of collapse.国家的经济已到了崩溃的边缘。
• The engineer made a complete diagnosis of the bridge's collapse.工程师对桥的倒塌做了一次彻底的调查分析。

11 ratified   

v.批准，签认（合约等）( ratify的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The treaty was declared invalid because it had not been ratified. 条约没有得到批准，因此被宣布无效。
• The treaty was ratified by all the member states. 这个条约得到了所有成员国的批准。

12 deploying   

（尤指军事行动）使展开( deploy的现在分词 )； 施展； 部署； 有效地利用

参考例句：

• Provides support for developing and deploying distributed, component-based applications. 为开发和部署基于组件的分布式应用程序提供支持。
• Advertisement, publishing, repair, and install-on-demand are all available when deploying your application. 在部署应用程序时提供公布、发布、修复和即需即装功能。