普京为兼并克里米亚辩护

Russian President Vladimir Putin has defended his country\'s annexation of Ukraine\'s Crimean peninsula and accused the West of using the Ukraine crisis as a pretext to impose sanctions on Moscow.

Delivering his annual state of the union speech Thursday, Mr. Putin referred to Crimea as Russia\'s spiritual ground. On the subject of Western sanctions, he said "when anyone thinks Russia has become strong, independent, such instruments are applied immediately."

Russia\'s economic situation has unraveled since the United States and the European Union imposed a series of increasingly harsh economic sanctions on Moscow over its annexation of Crimea and what they see as support for separatist rebels in eastern Ukraine.

Those sanctions, coupled with a sharp decline in oil exports and the freefall of the Russian ruble, prompted Moscow on Tuesday to predict the Russian economy will further contract in 2015. 

In his speech, Mr. Putin said the country\'s National Weath Fund should be used for supporting domestic banks.  He said as of November 1, the fund, which aims to cover future pension shortages, stood at $81.7 billion.

普京星期四发表年度国情咨文，他称克里米亚为俄罗斯的精神土地。在谈到西方制裁的时候，普京说：“任何人认为俄罗斯变得强壮、独立时，都会立即采用这种手段。”

美国及欧盟为了应对俄罗斯吞并克里米亚以及他们认为的俄罗斯对乌克兰东部分离主义反叛武装的支持，对莫斯科采取一系列越来越严厉的经济制裁措施，俄罗斯经济形势恶化。

西方制裁措施再加上俄罗斯石油出口量急剧减少以及卢布大幅贬值，导致莫斯科星期二预测俄罗斯经济2015年将继续萎缩。

普京在讲话中指出，应当利用俄罗斯的国家财富基金支持国内银行。他说，截至11月1日，这笔为应对未来退休金短缺而设立的资金共有817亿美元。