“I am feared; therefore I am.” This is more than a restatement of Machiavelli's celebrated advice that, for a ruler, it “is much safer to be feared than loved”. Vladimir Putin, the latest in the long line of autocratic Russian rulers, would agree with the Italian on that. But the war in Georgia is not just a re-assertion of Machiavelli's principles of statecraft; it is a renewal of Russian national identity. It is yet again feared. In the eyes of its rulers, therefore, it exists.
俄羅斯的這些借口，最令人瞠目之處在于，它們與它自身的信念明顯是矛盾的，只有關鍵的地方除外，那就是必須讓人畏懼。在俄國或蘇聯帝國的歷史上，自決原則素來無關緊要。俄國一向也不太在乎其公民的生命。蘇聯解體后的俄羅斯并無不同，那兩場導致成千上萬人死亡的車臣戰爭就是明證。那些也是俄羅斯公民。我們完全不必相信其偽善的行動理由。說真的，我懷疑俄羅斯如何向其中國盟友解釋它對自決原則的新信仰。
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