Russia is both a tragedy and a menace. In the Financial Times this week Sergey Karaganov offered an arresting insight into the blend of self-pity and braggadocio currently at work in Moscow. It is as depressing as it is disturbing. Western policy makers seem to believe the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (known as Isis) is the greater danger. But Russia is the nuclear-armed rump of a former superpower and, ruled by an amoral autocrat, it frightens me even more. For Europe and, I believe, the US, there is no greater foreign policy question than how to deal with today’s Russia.
俄罗斯既是一场悲剧，也是一个威胁。近日的英国《金融时报》上，谢尔盖•卡拉加诺夫(Sergey Karaganov)发表了一篇引人入胜的文章，深刻阐述了莫斯科相互交织的自怜与自负情绪。文中的内容既让人沮丧，也让人不安。西方政策制定者似乎相信“伊拉克与黎凡特伊斯兰国”(ISIS)的危险性更大。但前身是超级大国、拥有核武器、由一个无道德感的独裁者统治的俄罗斯更让我恐惧。对欧洲来说，如何应对当今的俄罗斯是最大的外交政策难题，在我看来对美国来说也是如此。