為何俄國依然是一個強國？
Why is Russia still a powerful country?
譯文簡介：西方繁榮的黃金時代已經結束，他們現在能做的就是利用烏克蘭和羅馬尼亞這樣的窮國來解決他們自己的問題。
譯文來源：https://www.quora.com/Why-is-Russia-still-a-powerful-country
原創翻譯：龍騰網
翻譯：翻譯熊Why is Russia still a powerful country?
為何俄國依然是一個強國？
Kuntal Sarma, Loves History & Geopolitics
Answered Apr 29, 2017
Russia is a superpower because it behaves like one and many countries depends on it either as a protector or for energy sources.Latvia, Slovakia, Finland & Estonia are 100% dependent on Russian oil. 80% oil and gas of The Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Lithuania comes from Russia and 60% of Greece, Austria and Hungary. All these oil & gas passes through pipelines which are laid from east to the west Europe. Half of Europe rely on Russia to keep their houses warm and vehicles moving.Militarily it is the second most advanced country in the world in terms of army & air-force. Only disadvantage it had was that, Russia did not have any all-weather warm water port. Now after annexation of Crimea, Russia has one, in the the form of Port of Sevastopol, Crimea.Russia is the world’s biggest nuclear power, ahead of the US. Countries such as Syria, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Belarus, Armenia looks towards Russia for their protection. China is the world''''s second largest economy but apart from North Korea no country depends on China for their safety. Infact China relies on the China-Russia relationship to defy US.Russia has a huge reserve of oil/natural gas and minerals in its Siberian region, which is its insurance against any world-wide financial turmoil and also a confirms that its economy is largely self sufficient and doesn''''t depend on any external factors.Vladimir Putin is an alpha male and a prime example of strong man politics. Having a leader with such a strong persona, adds on to the strength of the nation.Finally, historically Russia was the superpower that the Europe and US feared of throughout the 20th century. This continues even to today. The foreign policies of US is largely influenced by its fear of Russia.
Kuntal Sarma, 熱愛歷史和地緣政治
俄羅斯是一個超級大國，因為它的行為舉止就像一個超級大國，而許多國家要麼依靠它來保護自己，要麼依靠它來獲取能源。
1.拉脫維亞、斯洛伐克、芬蘭和愛沙尼亞100%依賴俄羅斯的石油。捷克共和國、保加利亞、立陶宛的石油和天然氣80%來自俄羅斯，希臘、奧地利和匈牙利的石油和天然氣60%來自俄羅斯。
2. 它是世界上陸軍和空軍第二發達的國家。唯一的缺點是，俄羅斯沒有任何全天候的暖水港。在吞併克里米亞之後，俄羅斯有了一個克里米亞塞瓦斯托波爾港。
3. 俄羅斯是世界上最大的核大國，領先於美國。敘利亞、伊朗、哈薩克斯坦、吉爾吉斯斯坦、塔吉克斯坦、白俄羅斯、亞美尼亞等國向俄羅斯尋求保護。中國是世界第二大經濟體，但除了朝鮮，沒有哪個國家的安全依賴中國。事實上，中國依賴中俄關系來對抗美國。
Alex Ladov
upxed Jul 4, 2018
Mostly because of Mr. Putin. Russia had a chance to become as poor and deindustrialized as Ukraine, but this simple Russian man managed to change the course predicted by American friends and made Russia Great Again:
He also restored the old Soviet anthem. With just a change in lyrics, it became even better, though the music is still same and it guarantees that Russia will be powerful forever. Just listen and compare it with the American anthem. Warning! If you listen to it 10 times you may become a Russian spy:
主要是因為普京。
俄羅斯本來有機會變得像烏克蘭一樣貧窮和去工業化的，但這個俄羅斯人設法改變了美國朋友預測的進程，讓俄羅斯再次變得偉大:（視頻略）
他還恢復了舊的蘇聯國歌。歌詞上的改變使它變得更好，儘管音樂仍然是一樣的，它保證了俄羅斯將永遠強大。聽一聽，把它和美國國歌比較一下。
警告!如果你聽了10遍，你可能會成為一名俄羅斯間諜:（視頻略）
Valentin Angelo Iseli
Apr 30, 2017 · 52 upvotes
I think Putin did help to grow the country in the 90ies( or maybe even until the Crimea Crisis), but then he pivoted to nationalism and interventionism, probably to distract from internal problems like absence of growth (maybe I do have the timing wrong with this point, due to falling oil prices, because the economy is not diversified enough), lack of representation of many groups and the demand for a better democracy (their perceived corruption index 2016 rated by Transparency international is lower than Honduras, Mexico, Malawi, Liberia, Mali and Ethiopia! Which means their people see it as more corrupt by indicators such as how many bribes they had to pay by year than the mentionned countries).
Russia as it is today probably won’t survive without him and the Russian people, especially the educated ones with dissident opinions, do suffer under him and his system. So I would not praise him for how he acts now. Similar to Erdogan, he did some good things in the beginning and became a huge problem later.
Now honestly, I think Russia is weakened and the interventions are mostly defensive of their sphere of influence (like Iran and Ukraine), which steadily receded, because the Russian system does not offer solutions to problems such as corruption and an undiversified economy.
They are still important, because they have nuclear warheads, oil production and a functioning army.
In the 90ies (before Crimea) I would have said Russia is still important, partially because of Putin, now I think Russia is still important partially despite of Putin.
我認為普京在90年代（甚至直到克里米亞危機）對俄羅斯的成長是有助益的（注：原文如此，但根據科普信息，普京是在葉利欽1999年12月31日突然辭職後擔任的代總統）。
但隨後他轉向了民族主義和干涉主義，這可能是為了轉移人們對國內問題的注意力，比如經濟增長的匱乏(也許我在這一點上選錯了，也可能是因為油價下跌，因為經濟不夠多樣化)、許多團體缺乏代表性，要求更好的民主（透明國際2016年腐敗指數，俄羅斯排名低於洪都拉斯、墨西哥、馬拉維、利比里亞、馬裡和埃塞俄比亞。這意味著他們的人民認為它比提到的以上國家更腐敗，比如他們每年要支付多少多少賄賂）。
如果沒有普京，今天的俄羅斯可能無法生存。但俄羅斯人民，尤其是那些受過教育、持不同意見的人，在他和他的體制下受苦受難，所以我不會因為他現在的行為而讚美他。和埃爾多安一樣，他一開始做了一些好事，後來卻成了一個大問題。
老實說，我認為俄羅斯被削弱了，干預主要是為了保護其勢力範圍(如伊朗和烏克蘭)，而這些勢力範圍正在穩步縮小，因為俄羅斯的體制沒有為腐敗和單一經濟等問題提供解決方案。
俄羅斯仍然很重要，因為它們擁有核彈頭、石油產量和一支正常運作的軍隊。
在90年代(克里米亞之前)，我會說俄羅斯仍然重要，部分是因為普京；現在我認為俄羅斯仍然重要，儘管有普京。
Alex Ladov
Original Author · Apr 30, 2017 · 32 upvotes
No, you got timing wrong. Russian economy was growing very fast till Ukrainian coup in 2014, after that he was forced to reunite Crimea (otherwise it would be American military base by now), then Americans (with help of their Saudi democratic friends) dropped oil and gas prices, Russian economy had an unexpectedly small recession after that as Russia is the biggest exporter of oil and gas, so it became necessary to restructure economy and make it more independent.
不，你選錯時間了，俄羅斯經濟增長非常迅速，直到2014年烏克蘭政變。
他被迫重新統一克裡米亞(否則現在它將成為美國的軍事基地)，然後美國人(在他們的沙特“民主”朋友的幫助下)降低了石油和天然氣價格。
由於俄羅斯是世界上最大的石油和天然氣出口國，因此有必要調整經濟結構，使其更加獨立。
Valentin Angelo Iseli
May 4, 2017 · 1 upvote
I think you have some good points. Thank you, I’ll have to think about it.
我認為你有些地方說得很好。
謝謝，我得考慮一下。
Ana Flora
May 5, 2017 · 9 upvotes
Every autocrat counts on a strong Propaganda and fanaticism. I’m sure Putin has done excellent things for Russia, for he is a nationalist (although also a totalitarian). However, to me, with my Western outlook (derived from the Greek democracy that permeated our Western culture), I cannot accept and find any good in a country with no freedom. I do understand the Russians though, for they have an eternal tradition (and history) of bowing for autocrats.
每個統治者都依賴強有力的宣傳和狂熱。
我相信普京為俄羅斯做了很多好事，因為他是一個民族主義者(儘管也是一個極權主義者)。
然而，對我來說，以我的西方觀點(源自於滲透進我們西方文化的希臘民主)，我無法接受，也無法在一個沒有自由的國家找到任何好處。不過，我確實理解俄羅斯人，因為他們有向統治者鞠躬的永恆傳統(和歷史)。
Alex Ladov
Original Author · May 7, 2017 · 12 upvotes
We would gladly stop spending money on missiles if US removes all their military bases around Russia
That may be true but this is not a reason to lose what we already have. Californians are poor comparing to Swiss but they are also not in a rush to give up everything they have and mimic Swiss political system and economy.
Besides, we have not just lower incomes but lower prices too, so life is not that bad, especially after referendum and reunification of Crimea with its California-like sunny climate :)
（其回覆者的留言已被刪除）
如果美國撤除他們在俄羅斯周圍的所有軍事基地，我們會很樂意停止在導彈上花錢。
“加州沒有石油或天然氣，但經濟產出比俄羅斯大。”
這也許是對的，但這並不是失去我們已經擁有的東西的理由。與瑞士人相比，加州人很窮，但他們也不急於放棄他們所擁有的一切，去模仿瑞士的政治制度和經濟。
此外，我們不僅收入更低，物價也更低，所以生活並沒有那麼糟糕，尤其是克里米亞公投和再次統一之後，那裡的明媚氣候就跟加州一樣。/笑
Christer ML Bendixen
May 10, 2017 · 2 upvotes
“We would gladly stop spending money on missiles if US removes all their military bases around Russia”
– I can believe that’s the attitude of the Russian people, but how do we know that Putin and the gang won’t seize the opportunity to engage in more foreign interventions?
“如果美國撤除他們在俄羅斯周圍的所有軍事基地，我們會很樂意停止在導彈上花錢。”
我相信這是俄羅斯人民的態度，但是我們怎麼知道普京和他的團隊不會抓住機會進行更多的外國干預呢?
Jet Genova
May 3, 2017 · 19 upvotes
Hahaha. Do you even know what your “American friends” were recommending? If Russia had done these things, it could have a real democracy, and diversified strong economy with multiple global companies like South Korea, Japan, or any Western European country by now who are rich without pumping oil. Did Putin liberate markets and fight corruption to spur business growth? No, he awarded all the industrial wealth of the country to a few individuals in his inner circle, to cement himself in the power seat. Russian economic growth exactly repeats the oil price growth. That''''s it. Big achievement.. in the meantime the well educated Russian population is underutilized and your brightest people run away overseas and use their talent to help build companies like Google and Apple.
哈哈哈哈哈，你是否知道你的“美國朋友”之前（給俄羅斯）推薦了什麼嗎?
如果俄羅斯做了這些事情，它可能會是一個真正的民主國家，一個多元化的強大經濟體，擁有韓國、日本等那樣的多個全球公司，或者像任何一個西歐國家，這些國家現在富裕了，不用開採石油。
普京解放了市場，打擊了腐敗，刺激了經濟增長嗎?不，他把這個國家所有的工業財富都給了他小圈子裡的幾個人，以鞏固自己在權力寶座上的地位。
俄羅斯的經濟增長不過是油價的增長導致的，僅此而已，多大成就啊。
與此同時，受過良好教育的俄羅斯人沒有得到充分利用，你們最聰明的人逃到海外，用他們的才能幫助建立像谷歌和蘋果這樣的公司。
Alex Ladov
Original Author · May 4, 2017 · 9 upvotes
>If Russia had done these things, it could have a real democracy, and diversified strong economy
Like in Ukraine or Romania or Bulgaria? LOL.
I agree that US did something good for South Korea, Japan and Western Europe LONG TIME AGO. At that time America was really great, not anymore, now all real economy and real money is in China and Asia, and US is just trying to survive by leveraging their military power and huge borrowing. As for Russia, we already saw how their “help” works after Perestroika, we are lucky that Russia survived at all and was not converted into permanent war zone like Ukraine. By the way, their goal in Ukraine is total de-industrialization and reducing its population, US know that 80% of people in this semi-country speak Russian and will always treat it like enemy.
“如果俄羅斯做了這些事情，它可能會是一個真正的民主國家，一個多元化的強大經濟體……”
或者最終會像烏克蘭、羅馬尼亞或保加利亞。哈哈哈哈
Alex Ladov
Original Author · May 4, 2017 · 7 upvotes
It is not just about corruption (which Russia fights quite well without western help). It is also about possibility to borrow. Average American has $200,000 debt. Most Western countries are in debt too albeit less than USA. Poland also borrowed and received lots of money from EU to improve their quality of life…. and still I doubt that average quality of life in Russia is worse considering lover prices for energy and gas.
Yes, Russia has oil. That was the reason why it was difficult to develop production of goods, it made sense just to drill and pump and buy everything else cheaper than local production. Now prices are lower but economy was not ruined at all, it was restructured and this year Russian economy is slowly growing again, unemployment is pretty low etc. Al in all, Russia is doing quite well even with lower oil prices.
這不僅僅是腐敗問題(俄羅斯在沒有西方幫助的情況下也能很好地打擊腐敗)。這還涉及到借款的可能性——（美國國債導致）美國人平均負債20萬美元。大多數西方國家也有債務，儘管比美國少。波蘭也從歐盟借了很多錢來改善他們的生活質量。考慮到能源和天然氣的低廉價格，我仍然懷疑俄羅斯的平均生活質量是否更差。
是，俄羅斯有石油。這就是為什麼很難發展商品生產，因為只有鑽探、泵和購買一切比當地生產更便宜的東西才有意義。現在物價下降了，但經濟並沒有被摧毀，而是進行了重組，今年俄羅斯經濟再次緩慢增長，失業率也很低。總的來說，即使油價下跌，俄羅斯也會運轉得很好。
As for illusions about improving life in Ukraine by joining West… forget about it, Poland was the last country US used as an example to demonstrate advantage of Western block. They had money to help Poland 20 years ago. They don’t have money now to help others. They even have not enough money to sustain their current standard of life, West is slowly getting poorer and China is getting richer. Ukraine will be simply used to 1) hurt Russians in both Russia and Ukraine 2) to resolve demographic problems in EU, so all active young people will immigrate and never return (even Poland is suffering from that and hopes to replace immigrated workers with Ukrainian labor).
The Golden Age of Western prosperity is over. All they can do now is to exploit poor countries like Ukraine and Romania to resolve their own problems.
至於通過加入西方來改善烏克蘭生活的幻想……算了吧，波蘭是最後一個被美國用來展示西方陣營優勢的國家了。20年前，他們有錢幫助波蘭。但他們現在沒錢去幫助別人了。他們甚至沒有足夠的錢來維持目前的生活水平，西方正慢慢變窮，而中國正變得越來越富有。
烏克蘭未來能派上用場的地方：1. 傷害俄羅斯和烏克蘭的俄羅斯人；2. 為了解決歐盟的人口問題，所有活躍的（烏克蘭）年輕人都會移民，而且永遠不會再回來(即使是波蘭也在遭受移民之苦，希望用烏克蘭勞工取代移民工人)。
西方繁榮的黃金時代已經結束，他們現在能做的就是利用烏克蘭和羅馬尼亞這樣的窮國來解決他們自己的問題。
