普京自稱俄羅斯穩定保證人

Vladimir Putin has swung into campaign mode ahead of March’s presidential election, portraying himself as a guarantor of stability for Russia and saying no opposition politician is fit to challenge him.

弗拉基米爾?普京(Vladimir Putin)已進入明年3月總統大選的競選狀態，把自己描繪成保證俄羅斯穩定的人，並稱沒有一個反對派政治人物適合挑戰他。

At his marathon annual televised press conference yesterday, the president told Russians his record was unassailable as he announced he would run for a fourth term, but as an independent candidate rather than relying on nomination by the ruling United Russia party.

在昨日電視直播的馬拉松式年度記者會上，俄羅斯總統告訴國人，他的記錄是無懈可擊的。他宣佈將競選第四個任期，但將作爲一名獨立候選人蔘選，不依靠執政的統一俄羅斯黨(United Russia party)的提名。

Mr Putin claimed the country needed political competition but that none of its opposition politicians was fit to challenge him. He dismissed Alexei Navalny — the opposition politician who has emerged as his only potential challenger but is set to be barred from running — as a coup-plotting troublemaker lacking any recipe for Russia’s development.

普京稱，國家需要政治競爭，但是目前沒有一個反對派政治人物適合挑戰他。他對阿列克謝?納瓦爾尼(Alexei Navalny)不屑一顧，稱其是一個密謀政變的麻煩製造者，拿不出推動俄羅斯發展的任何政見。反對派政治人物納瓦爾尼已成爲普京的唯一潛在挑戰者，但勢必將被禁止參選。

Asked whether he was too afraid to allow serious competition in the presidential race, Mr Putin mockingly compared Mr Navalny to Mikheil Saakashvili, the former Georgian president now an opposition figure in Ukraine leading protests against President Petro Poroshenko. “Do you want people like Saakashvili running around our streets like in Ukraine?” Mr Putin said.

在被問及他是不是太害怕，不敢在大選中允許真正的競爭時，普京嘲弄地將納瓦爾尼比作格魯吉亞前總統米哈伊爾?薩卡什維利(Mikheil Saakashvili)；後者現在是烏克蘭的反對派人物，領導反對烏克蘭總統彼得羅?波羅申科(Petro Poroshenko)的抗議。“你想要薩卡什維利這樣的人在我國的街道上沒事找事，就像在烏克蘭那樣嗎？”普京表示。

Mr Saakashvili and “the likes of those you mentioned”, referring to Mr Navalny, were aiming to orchestrate another coup d’état, he added. “But the Russian people will never support that. We don’t want this to be Ukraine 2.0.”

他補充說，薩卡什維利和“你提到的那些人”——指納瓦爾尼——意在策劃又一場政變。“但俄羅斯人民永遠不會支持那種事。我們不希望這變成烏克蘭2.0。”

Mr Putin was answering a question from Ksenia Sobchak, a celebrity television anchor who has announced her own presidential candidacy. She says her run is aimed at mobilising the protest vote but many in the opposition believe it is welcomed by the Kremlin to weaken support for Mr Navalny. Ms Sobchak said opposition politicians in Russia had been imprisoned or even murdered, and those who attempted to run were facing severe obstacles.

普京是在回答電視名主播克謝尼婭?索布恰克(Ksenia Sobchak)的提問時發表這番言論的。索布恰克本人已宣佈競選總統。她說，她競選的目標是爭取抗議票，但是反對派政黨的許多人相信，她的參選受到克里姆林宮歡迎，因爲會分走納瓦爾尼的支持票。索布恰克表示，俄羅斯的反對派政治人物身陷囹圄，甚至被謀殺，而試圖投入競選的人面臨嚴重障礙。

“For example, there is [Alexei] Navalny, who has been running a campaign for a year, who was targeted with trumped-up criminal charges and their fictitiousness was even proven in an international court. And yet he is not being admitted to the elections,” she said. “Is the government afraid of fair competition?”

“例如，阿列克謝?納瓦爾尼已經進行了一年的競選活動，他遭遇無中生有的刑事指控，這些指控的虛構性質甚至已被一所國際法庭證實。但他仍不被允許參選，”她表示。“政府是不是害怕公平競爭？”

An angry president retorted that “the government has never feared anyone and doesn’t fear [anyone] now”.

憤怒的俄羅斯總統反駁稱：“本屆政府從來沒有怕過任何人，現在也不怕任何人”。

Mr Putin, 65, continues to enjoy a support rating of more than 80 per cent, according to Levada, Russia’s only independent pollster. The ruling party’s ratings lag several tens of percentage points behind that. Kremlin consultants believe that standing as an independent is better suited to Mr Putin’s status as a national leader above party politics.

根據俄羅斯唯一的獨立民調機構列瓦達(Levada)的數據，現年65歲的普京繼續享有80%以上的支持率，比執政黨的支持率高出幾十個百分點。克里姆林宮的顧問們認爲，作爲一個獨立候選人蔘選，更適合普京作爲國家領導人、超越黨派政治的地位。

Mr Putin said he thought US president Donald Trump had made “significant achievements” in office, but railed against what he called “this spy hysteria, this Russian meddling hysteria”.

普京表示，他認爲美國總統唐納德?特朗普(Donald Trump)已在任內取得了“重大成就”，但譴責了他所稱的“這場關於間諜、關於俄羅斯干預（美國政治）的荒唐鬧劇”。