美军将领警告：俄罗斯准备挑战美国军力优势
俄罗斯军事现代化和军力的加强日益对美国和欧洲部队构成威胁。一些国防官员担心，俄罗斯军力不久将挑战美国及其盟国的军力优势。
俄罗斯总统普京不久前炫耀俄罗斯四个新的发射系统，能让美国的防御“毫无用处”，展示了俄罗斯对其核武库重建的信心，成为外界关注焦点。
同样引起美国和欧洲官员关注的是俄罗斯对其常规军队的重新打造，其实力在乌克兰和叙利亚等地已经受了考验。
美国驻欧洲司令部司令柯蒂斯·斯卡帕罗蒂将军星期四在华盛顿告诉国会说：“俄罗斯日趋现代化的军队的运转已达到冷战以来前所未有的程度。”斯卡帕罗蒂将军警告说，美国除了与之并驾齐驱，别无选择。
斯卡帕罗蒂将军进一步强调，如果美国不继续推动军队现代化，到2025年的时候，俄罗斯就可能在“军事上的几乎所有领域内挑战美国。”
兰德公司最近的一份报告也得出结论说，东欧地区尤其脆弱。报告警告说，如果俄罗斯发动常规进攻，东欧地区的北约部队在“人数和武器装备上都远远不及俄罗斯”。
报告说，俄罗斯在欧洲东翼有大约7万8千名士兵，而北约只有3万2千人。俄罗斯有757辆坦克，北约只有129辆。
然而，美国国会参议院军事委员会成员星期四向斯卡帕罗蒂将军提出这个问题时，斯卡帕罗蒂将军却表示，该地区任何可能发生的冲突都不会完全仰仗地面部队和坦克来完成。
Russia Poised to Challenge US for Military Dominance
Russia’s campaign to modernize and strengthen its armed forces is increasingly putting U.S. and European forces at risk, with some defense officials raising concerns Moscow’s military soon could challenge the U.S. and its allies for dominance across the continent.
Most of the focus in recent weeks has been on Russia’s newfound confidence in its nuclear arsenal after President Vladimir Putin boasted about four new delivery systems designed to make U.S. defenses “useless.”
Of equal concern to U.S. and European officials, however, is Russia’s re-made conventional military might, which has been displayed and tested in places like Ukraine and Syria.
“Russia's increasingly modernized military is operating at levels not seen since the Cold War," the commander of U.S. forces in Europe, Gen. Curtis Scaparrotti, told lawmakers in Washington, Thursday, warning the U.S. has no choice but to keep pace.
Scaparrotti, who also serves as NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander, further underscored that any failure by Washington to continue to modernize its forces could enable Russia to challenge the U.S. “in almost every domain, in a military perspective, by 2025.”
A new report by the Rand Corporation ((www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RR2080.html)) concludes Eastern Europe is especially vulnerable, warning NATO ground forces there would be “badly outnumbered and outgunned” if Moscow were to launch a conventional attack.
According to the report, while Russia has about 78,000 troops along Europe’s eastern flank, NATO has just 32,000. Russian tanks also outnumber NATO tanks 757 to 129.
Questioned by members of the Senate Armed Services Committee Thursday, Gen. Scaparrotti pushed back against some of those concerns, noting any potential conflict would not be fought with ground forces and tanks alone.
英首相保证对前俄罗斯间谍被神经毒剂所伤做出“恰当”回应
英国首相特蕾莎·梅保证，如果发现俄罗斯幕后策划了用神经毒剂刺杀前俄罗斯间谍谢尔盖·斯科利帕和他女儿一事，将做出“恰当的”回应。
特蕾莎·梅首相星期四告诉独立电视新闻说：“但是我们应该给警方时间和空间，让他们完成调查。当然了，如果需要采取行动的话，政府会在正确的时间，以最有力的证据为基础采取行动。”
英国内政大臣拉德告诉议会说：“在英国境内使用神经毒剂是肆无忌惮的行为，是最残酷最公开的蓄意谋杀。”
警方一位官员告诉英国天空电视台说，在英国南部索尔兹伯里镇一个购物中心附近释放的神经毒剂共伤及21人，其中3人仍在住院治疗，包括袭击目标前俄罗斯间谍谢尔盖·斯科利帕、他的女儿尤利娅和在户外长椅上发现他们不省人事而赶来救助的英国警察贝利。
谢尔盖·斯科利帕和他女儿星期四晚上依然处于昏迷状态，贝利虽有意识，但情况危急。
警方检查了闭路电视图像，据报道已把目光对准曾出现在附近的一男一女。
警方尚未公开作案使用的神经毒剂和涉案嫌疑人，但是所有疑点都指向俄罗斯。
斯科利帕曾为俄罗斯军事情报机构总参情报总局效力，后来为英国情报机构军情六处刺探情报，在俄罗斯监狱里被关了四年。2010年，在一次带有冷战风格的交换被捕间谍行动中，斯科利帕在维也纳机场的跑道获释。俄罗斯释放了他和另外三名俄罗斯双料间谍，换回被美国驱逐的10名俄罗斯深层卧底特工，包括曼哈顿社交名媛、外交官之女安娜·查普曼。
这起事件令人联想起亚历山大·利特维年科之死。他曾是俄罗斯克格勃特工，后来为英国情报机构效力。他还高调批评俄罗斯总统普京。2006年，利特维年科在伦敦一家酒店喝了被放入钋-210辐射物质的茶，几天之后痛苦地死去。英国医生当时很难查明致死物质。
British PM Promises 'Appropriate' Response to Poisoning of Former Russian Agent
British Prime Minister Theresa May is promising an "appropriate" response if it is discovered that Russia is responsible for poisoning a former Russian spy and his daughter.
"But let's give the police the time and space to actually conduct their investigation," she told ITV news Thursday. "Of course if action needs to be taken, then the government...will do that properly at the right time and on the basis of the best evidence."
Home Secretary Amber Rudd told Parliament "the use of a nerve agent on British soil is a brazen and reckless act. This was attempted murder in the most cruel and public way."
A police official told Britain's Sky News a total of 21 people were injured by the nerve agent released near a shopping center in the southern city of Salisbury. Three people are still in the hospital -- the apparent intended target, former Russian spy Sergei Skripal; his daughter, Yulia; and British policeman Nick Bailey, who came to their aid after he found the two slumped unconscious on an outdoor bench.
Skripal and his daughter were still unconscious and in critical condition as of late Thursday. Bailey was in serious condition, but awake.
Police have been examining security camera footage of the crime scene and are reportedly focusing their attention on a man and woman spotted nearby.
Police have not publicly talked about the nerve agent that poisoned Skripal or who might have been responsible. But suspicions are pointing to Russia.
Skripal served in Russia's military intelligence agency, GRU. He was exchanged in a Cold War-type spy swap in 2010 on the runway at Vienna's airport. After serving four years in prison in Russia for spying for Britain's espionage service, MI6, Skripal was one of four Russian double agents exchanged for 10 Russians expelled from the United States, including Manhattan socialite Anna Chapman.
The incident is drawing comparisons to the case of Alexander Litvinenko, a Russian KGB officer-turned-British intelligence agent and a highly public critic of President Vladimir Putin. Litvinenko died an agonizing death days after drinking tea laced with radioactive polonium-210 in a London hotel in 2006. British doctors struggled in that case to identify the substance that killed him.
