2014英语四级听力练习慢速4.1(1)_大学英语听力

2014英语四级听力练习慢速4.1(1)

　　Matthew Rojansky is an expert on relations between the former Soviet republics and the United States. He works at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington. He says that by seizing Crimea, Mr. Putin has destroyed the image of Russia being a responsible partner on international issues.

　　But there is another image that he may care much, much more about. And that is his image at home as not only the defender of the Russian people -- which certainly the argument about defending Russians in Crimea and eastern Ukraine would help -- but also as defender of a greater Russia. You know, of a vision of Russia which is more powerful and bigger and which is taken seriously perhaps more out of fear than out of love.

　　Brent Scowcroft served as national security adviser to two American presidents. He told before Russias seizure of Crimea that President Putin wants his country to be seen as a strong power.

　　Putin nurses a grudge because what he says is that at the end of the Cold War, when Russia was flat on its back, we walked all over them. And we did it because they were weak. Technically, he has a point. We pushed the borders of NATO right up into the former Soviet Union. We denounced the ABM treaty and so on and so forth. We didnt do it to weaken the Russians. We did it because we thought it was useful. But that gnaws at him.

　　The United States and its Western allies have ordered economic actions against Russian officials because of what happened in Crimea. The Russian government answered the orders by placing travel restrictions on U.S. officials.