俄罗斯在敏感地区开展军事演习

Russia has launched large-scale military exercises involving three disputed territories in a move likely to irk its neighbours and heighten concern in Nato about Moscow’s intentions.

俄罗斯在三个争端地区展开大规模军事演习。此举很可能会激怒其邻国乌克兰，并加剧北约(NATO)对俄罗斯政府意图的担忧。

The defence ministry on Thursday announced a drill including the federal districts of Southern Russia, the Northern Caucasus and the recently-annexed Crimea as well as Russian military bases in Abkhazia, South Ossetia and Armenia. The exercises will run until April 10.

周四，俄罗斯国防部宣布了有关演习的消息。演习地区除了包括俄罗斯的南方联邦管区和北高加索联邦管区，还包括新近吞并的克里米亚，以及阿布哈兹(Abkhazia)、南奥塞梯(South Ossetia)和亚美尼亚(Armenia)的俄罗斯军事基地。演习将持续到4月10日。

This adds to a string of manoeuvres conducted over the past few weeks in Crimea, Armenia, the Russian region of North Ossetia and three other areas in Southern Russia.

过去几周，俄罗斯曾在克里米亚、亚美尼亚、俄罗斯北奥塞梯地区级及俄罗斯南方联邦管区的另外三个地区开展过多次军事调动。这次演习成为这类军事动作中的最新一例。

While the Russian armed forces regularly hold manoeuvres at their bases in Armenia and in the two disputed breakaway regions from Georgia — Abkhazia and South Ossetia — they have in the past shied away from giving them too high a profile.

俄罗斯武装部队过去也会在位于亚美尼亚、阿布哈兹和南奥塞梯的基地中定期调动，不过他们会避免过于高调。在上述三个区域中，阿布哈兹和南奥塞梯是从格鲁吉亚分离出来的有争议地区。

Foreign military experts in Moscow said the overall level of drill activity since the beginning of the year was comparable to the same period last year. Yet the latest exercises were being viewed as a message. “That every exercise at the moment also carries a signal to the west regarding Russia’s readiness goes without saying,” said a European military official.

莫斯科的外国军事专家表示，自今年初以来，俄罗斯演习活动的总体规模与去年同期相当。但是，最近这次演习却被视为向外传递的一个信号。一名欧洲军官表示：“不言而喻的是，考虑到俄罗斯的意愿，目前每次演习都会向西方释放某种信号。”

In September 2012, when the military conducted an annual exercise covering the Caucasus region, it said bases in Armenia, South Ossetia and Abkhazia were not participating and no foreign nationals were taking part “in order to avoid extra tension in the bilateral relations with several neighbours of the Russian Federation.”

2012年9月，俄罗斯军方曾在其年度演习中将高加索地区包括在内。当时他们曾表示，“为避免与俄罗斯联邦几个邻国间的双边关系遭遇额外压力”，亚美尼亚、南奥塞梯和阿布哈兹的军事基地没有参加演习，演习也没有外国人参加。

But this time, the tone is set by a hardening stand-off between Russia and Nato over Moscow’s role in the war in eastern Ukraine.

相比之下，随着与北约间的对峙日益加深，俄罗斯这一次的态度却大不一样。双方目前的对峙，源于俄罗斯政府在乌克兰东部战争中所扮演的角色。