自从2022年春季乌克兰局势对弗拉基米尔·普京不利以来，这位俄罗斯总统及其官员不仅声称他们是在打击纳粹、应对北约侵略，还宣称这场冲突的利害关系如此重大，以至于一旦失败，俄罗斯可能会不复存在。
Ever since things in Ukraine first went sideways for Vladimir Putin back in the spring of 2022, the Russian president and his officials have said that, not only were they fighting Nazis and responding to NATO aggression, but that the stakes of the conflict were so high that Russia may cease to exist should they fail.
这种说法一直令人费解，因为它看起来太荒谬了。然而，这种信念有助于解释克里姆林宫目前在多大程度上加剧对乌克兰的袭击、扩大在欧洲的混合战争行动，并通过宣布把大量预算从非国防开支转移到军事开支来冒着引发国内不满的风险。
This claim has always been puzzling, because it seems so absurd. And yet such a belief would help explain the extent to which the Kremlin is now ramping up attacks on Ukraine, expanding its campaign of hybrid warfare in Europe and — by announcing massive budget transfers from nondefense to military spending — risking discontent at home.
本月早些时候，普京在瓦尔代国际辩论俱乐部年会上对外交政策和俄罗斯问题分析人士发表年度讲话时，再次触及了这一观点。普京老调重谈了时任美国常驻北约大使朱莉安娜·史密斯在2022年的一番言论——即美国寻求让俄罗斯“战略失败”，并称这让他的国家的“生存权”受到了质疑。
Putin touched on the idea yet again earlier this month in his annual address to the Valdai Club conference of foreign policy and Russia analysts. Harping on a 2022 comment from then-NATO Ambassador Julianne Smith that the U.S. sought Russia’s “strategic defeat,” Putin said this put his nation’s “very right to exist” in question.