译者 TheoTsai
YESTERDAY'S parliamentary poll in Russia was always going to be more a referendum on Vladimir Putin and the ruling United Russia party than a real election. The genuine opposition was barred from taking part long before polling day; television, which remains the main source of news and views for most of the country, has been working at full propaganda throttle; and governors and mayors across Russia were given specific targets for United Russia's voting figures and told to meet them.
昨天（12月5日）在俄罗斯举行的议会（国家杜马）选举，与其说是一场真正的选举，不如说是为弗拉基米尔.普京和其所领导的统一俄罗斯党所进行的公民投票。真正的反对党在选举日到来前曾遭到长时间的封禁；仍然作为俄罗斯的新闻和评论最主要来源媒介的电视，持续地不遗余力进行着宣传；而上级赋予俄罗斯各地的州长和市长们为统一俄罗斯党进行投票具体数字的任务，并要求他们达到该数字。
Yet United Russia won just under 50% of the vote, down from 64% in 2007. It will enjoy a simple majority in parliament but no longer the two-thirds it needs to alter the constitution. Dmitry Medvedev, Russia’s president, who was placed at the top of United Russia’s electoral list, tried to put a brave face on the result. Boris Gryzlov, the speaker of parliament and United Russia's chairman, argued that the party put in a strong performance compared with other European ruling parties.
但尽管费尽心思，统一俄罗斯党仅仅赢得不足50%的选票，比2007年的64%得票率降低了不少。该党仍然能享有议会中的简单多数议席（编者注：即执政地位），但它不再达到法定修宪所需的三分之二的议席份额。领衔统一俄罗斯党竞选名单的现任俄罗斯总统迪米特里.梅德韦杰夫，对于选举结果极力掩饰失望的心情。而国家杜马与统一俄罗斯党的双料主席鲍里斯.格雷兹洛夫则强调，与其他欧洲执政党相比，统一俄罗斯党的表现已经足够强势。
That smacked of desperation, given that Russia’s voting procedure bears little resemblance to genuine elections. Most analysts say that the real lesson of yesterday's poll is that Mr Putin's regime is starting to lose legitimacy among its core voters, particularly in large cities.
鉴于俄罗斯的选举表决程序与真正的选举没有多少相似之处，该主席的说法略带绝望的味道。大多数分析家指出，昨天的选举表明，普京的政权在核心选民尤其是大城市的选民中间已经开始丧失合法性地位。
This explains the Kremlin’s hysterical behaviour towards election monitors. The most important of these, Golos (Voice, or Vote), was harassed and smeared by one of Russia's main television channels after Mr Putin likened its observers, who receive foreign grants, to Judas. What irritated the authorities most, however, was an interactive map created by Golos that allowed people across Russia to report election abuses. On Saturday this earned Golos a $1,000 fine from a Moscow court.
这一说法很好地解释了克里姆林宫对选举监督者们近乎歇斯底里举动的原因。其中最重要的观察组织是Golos，在因收受外国赠款而被普京比作是犹大之后，该选举监督组织被俄罗斯一家主要的电视频道大肆骚扰和抹黑。但最令当局感到愤怒的是，Golos绘制了一份交互式地图，让来自俄罗斯各地的人们检举选举舞弊的情况。此举令Golos在周六从一家莫斯科法院收到了1000美元的罚单。
Yesterday various websites, including Golos's and that of LiveJournal, a popular social network, were brought down by massive cyber-attacks. Some were brought back online after polling closed; others remain down. But the authorities could do little to stop videos of ballot-box stuffing being posted on YouTube and Facebook.
昨天包括Golos和另一家广受欢迎的综合社交网站LJ在内的众多网站遭到了大规模的网络攻击而导致瘫痪。一些网站在投票结束后得到了恢复，而另一些则仍然处于瘫痪状态。但YouTube和Facebook将塞满假选票的选票箱的视频公之与众，当局对阻止这种行为无能为力。
The irony is that United Russia could probably have won 45% of the vote anyway (although not in Moscow and St Petersburg). Opinion pollsters say that across the country this kind of rigging rarely changes the outcome by much more than 5%.
颇具讽刺的是即便如此统一俄罗斯党可能只赢得了45%的选票（尚不包括莫斯科和圣彼得堡）。资深的民意分析家指出，这种在全国范围内操纵选举的方式很少能影响投票结果份额超过5%。
The damage to the Kremlin's legitimacy is considerably higher, particularly in Moscow, traditionally a weak spot for United Russia, and where the regime seemed to concentrate most of its efforts yesterday. Throughout the day young people in identical white coats were ferried between polling stations—some voting more than a dozen times, according to Russian journalists. I saw several organised groups casting ballots in different polling stations with distant voting permits.
克里姆林宫的合法性地位所受到的质疑进一步高企，尤其是在莫斯科这个传统意义上是统一俄罗斯党势力较薄弱的地区——该党昨天在这里尽最大的努力去竞选。据俄罗斯记者的报道，昨天一整天，身着统一白色外套的年轻人穿梭于各大投票点——他们中的一些人数次投票。“我看见一些有组织的团体在不同的投票站投票，而他们手中的选票许可证各不相同。”
Despite this, in Moscow at 6pm—two hours before voting closed—United Russia had polled only 27.5%, according to pro-Kremlin pollsters. Its final result, announced after a long delay, was 46.5%. Nowhere else in Russia was the discrepancy between exit polls and the result as high.
尽管如此，根据前克里姆林宫的民意分析家计算，截至晚上6点——距离投票结束还有两小时——统一俄罗斯党在莫斯科的得票率仅为27.5%。在耽搁了很长时间之后，它公布了投票的最终结果，为46.5%。俄罗斯任何其他地方的出口民调与计票结果的差异都不似莫斯科这般之高。
In St Petersburg, Mr Putin’s home town, United Russia got only 34% of the vote. This despite election-day behaviour that Sergei Mironov, leader of the Just Russia party, denounced as "lawlessness".
在普京的家乡圣彼得堡，统一俄罗斯党仅仅得到了34%的选票。公正俄罗斯党的党魁谢尔盖.米罗诺夫谴责选举日的丑恶行为，指责这种情况为“非法的选举”。
The Kremlin initially set up Just Russia as a clone of United Russia, but then dumped it publicly. Partly as a result the party performed strongly yesterday, winning 24.5% of the vote. This was almost double its achievement in 2007, when it was seen as a leg of the Kremlin. Yet even before the counting was complete Mr Mironov said he “did not rule out” a coalition with United Russia.
克里姆林宫起初建立公正俄罗斯党是为了把它作为统一俄罗斯党的翻版，但之后就将其公然抛弃。部分原因是由于该党昨天表现十分强劲，赢得了24.5%的选票。这个成绩几乎是2007年的2倍，彼时该党还被视为克里姆林宫的股肱。而即使在计票结果出来前，米罗诺夫还声称他“并不排除”与统一俄罗斯党结盟。
The absurdity of the rigging became clear as results came in. In some regions the sum of votes cast for all parties exceeded 140%. In Chechnya, ruled by Ramzan Kadyrov, a Kremlin-friendly strongman, United Russia’s result was 99.5%. A similar result was achieved in a Moscow psychiatric hospital.
当计票结果出来以后，选举舞弊的滑稽场面变得越来越清晰。在一些地区，各方的总得票率竟超过140%。在车臣地区——该地区的掌权者拉姆赞.卡德罗夫是一位与克里姆林宫关系密切的政治强人——统一俄罗斯党的得票率为99.5%。相类似的结果出现在莫斯科一家精神疗养医院。
The ballot is likely to strengthen the image of United Russia as a party of "thieves and crooks", as it is known to many Russians. But it could also fan anti-Caucasus sentiment, to potentially explosive effect. In a blog post Alexei Navalny, a popular Russian blogger with a strong nationalist tint, said that yesterday's election showed that "Putin is the president of Chechnya, Ingushetia and Dagestan—but not Russia".
不少俄罗斯民众认为统一俄罗斯党是一个聚集了”窃贼和恶棍”的党派，而此次选举似乎强化了这个形象。但这同样有可能煽动民众的反高加索情绪，制造潜在的爆炸性效应。一名有着强烈民族主义色彩而广受欢迎的俄罗斯撰稿人亚历克斯.纳瓦尼在他的一篇博客中写道，昨天的选举表明，“普京是车臣、印古什和达吉斯坦的总统，但不是俄罗斯的总统”。
Why did United Russia perform so dismally? As Alexander Oslon, a pollster who advises the Kremlin, says, it is partly the result of the job swap announced in September between Mr Medvedev and Mr Putin, who will return to the presidency next March. “If a captain of your football team says there is someone stronger than him, your confidence in the team weakens,” he said.
为什么统一俄罗斯党表现的如此差劲呢？正如一位向克里姆林宫谏言的民意观察家亚历山大.欧斯隆所指的那样，其部分原因是梅德韦杰夫和普京今年9月曾宣布他们将在明年3月进行岗位对换，普京将重返总统宝座。“如果你的足球队队长说有人比他还要强，那么你球队的自信心将会被极大地削弱”，他表示。
But many political observers say this is just a symptom of the regime's loss of legitimacy. “They cannot allow genuine competition because they are scared of losing power,” comments Dmitry Oreshkin, a political analyst. The next step could be purges within United Russia; Mr Gryzlov could be the first to go, according to Ekho Moskvy, a radio station.
不过许多的政治观察家认为这恰恰是俄政权失去合法性的一个征兆。“他们无法允许真正的竞选是因为他们害怕失去权力”，政治分析家迪米特里.欧利什金评论到。而援引莫斯科回声电台的分析，下一步有可能将是统一俄罗斯党党内的整肃了；格雷兹洛夫很可能将是第一个被扫地出门的人。
from 译言-每日精品译文推荐 http://article.yeeyan.org/view/269872/238184
