俄羅斯在敏感地區開展軍事演習

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.

俄羅斯在三個爭端地區展開大規模軍事演習。此舉很可能會激怒其鄰國烏克蘭，並加劇北約(NATO)對俄羅斯政府意圖的擔憂。

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.

週四，俄羅斯國防部宣佈了有關演習的消息。演習地區除了包括俄羅斯的南方聯邦管區和北高加索聯邦管區，還包括新近吞併的克里米亞，以及阿布哈茲(Abkhazia)、南奧塞梯(South Ossetia)和亞美尼亞(Armenia)的俄羅斯軍事基地。演習將持續到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.

過去幾周，俄羅斯曾在克里米亞、亞美尼亞、俄羅斯北奧塞梯地區級及俄羅斯南方聯邦管區的另外三個地區開展過多次軍事調動。這次演習成爲這類軍事動作中的最新一例。

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.

俄羅斯武裝部隊過去也會在位於亞美尼亞、阿布哈茲和南奧塞梯的基地中定期調動，不過他們會避免過於高調。在上述三個區域中，阿布哈茲和南奧塞梯是從格魯吉亞分離出來的有爭議地區。

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.

莫斯科的外國軍事專家表示，自今年初以來，俄羅斯演習活動的總體規模與去年同期相當。但是，最近這次演習卻被視爲向外傳遞的一個信號。一名歐洲軍官表示：“不言而喻的是，考慮到俄羅斯的意願，目前每次演習都會向西方釋放某種信號。”

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，俄羅斯軍方曾在其年度演習中將高加索地區包括在內。當時他們曾表示，“爲避免與俄羅斯聯邦幾個鄰國間的雙邊關係遭遇額外壓力”，亞美尼亞、南奧塞梯和阿布哈茲的軍事基地沒有參加演習，演習也沒有外國人蔘加。

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，隨着與北約間的對峙日益加深，俄羅斯這一次的態度卻大不一樣。雙方目前的對峙，源於俄羅斯政府在烏克蘭東部戰爭中所扮演的角色。