The Soviet Union’s sunset years hardly felt like an innocent age to those who lived through them, but to recall the hopes and aspirations of that era is to rue the naiveties of those days. “A common European house” was how President Mikhail Gorbachev pictured the continent’s future; “a Europe whole and free”, in the words of George HW Bush, his American counterpart. But, as the tussle over Ukraine has shown, Russia and the west are rivals once again. The ceasefire signed on September 5 gives both sides a chance to overcome their own illusions. They should take it, lest the conflict become a direct military confrontation.
對曾經親身經歷過那個年代的人而言，蘇聯(Soviet Union)日薄西山那些年很難算「純真年代」。但回想那個時代的希望和憧憬，我們一定會爲那時的天真感到後悔。當時的俄羅斯總統米哈伊爾•戈巴契夫(Mikhail Gorbachev)這樣描述歐洲大陸的未來——「一個共同的歐洲大家園」，用當時的美國總統老布希(George HW Bush)的話來說則是——「一個統一而自由的歐洲」。然而，圍繞烏克蘭的爭吵顯示出，俄羅斯和西方又一次成爲了對手。9月5日簽訂的停火協議給了雙方一個克服各自幻覺的機會。他們應該抓住這個機會，以免衝突演變成直接的軍事對抗。