Western suspicions that Russia is following the “Crimea playbook” in eastern Ukraine are way off the mark. To begin with, President Vladimir Putin never considered Crimea to be part of Ukraine. His mission there, as he saw it, was to reunify Russia and correct two historical injustices: Nikita Khrushchev’s transfer of the peninsula to Ukraine from Russia in 1954; and the break-up of the Soviet Union in 1991, which left Crimea in now independent Ukraine. That mission is now accomplished.
西方怀疑俄罗斯正在乌克兰东部沿用“克里米亚策略”,这种怀疑远不是事实。首先,俄罗斯总统弗拉基米尔•普京(Vladimir Putin)从来没把克里米亚视为乌克兰的一部分。他认为,他在该地区的使命是重新统一俄罗斯,并纠正两个历史性错误:一是1954年尼基塔•赫鲁晓夫(Nikita Khrushchev)将克里米亚半岛从俄罗斯划归乌克兰,二是1991年苏联解体——这导致克里米亚留在如今独立的乌克兰手中。现在,他的这一使命已经完成。