The pumping heart of the boom is western Siberia's boggy oil fields, which produce around 70 percent of Russia's oil—some seven million barrels a day. For Khanty-Mansi, a territory nearly the size of France, the bonanza provides an unparalleled opportunity to create modern, even desirable living conditions in a region whose very name evokes a harsh, desolate place. Khanty-Mansi's regional capital, scene of the holiday revelries, is being rebuilt with oil-tax proceeds. The new structures include an airport terminal (once a wooden shack with an outhouse), an art museum featuring paintings by 19th-century Russian masters, and a pair of lavishly equipped boarding schools for children gifted in mathematics and the arts. Even the provincial town of Surgut, a backwater only a few decades ago, is laying out new suburbs and is plagued by traffic jams.
但是石油带来的机会有可能从这个地区流逝。尽管油价大幅飙升，近年来西伯利亚西部的石油产量并没有变动。2004至2007年，石油产量几乎没增加多少， 因为冷血无情、大权在握的克里姆林宫统治阶层，就是在这段期间收回了一度由私人石油大亨掌握的上等油田。以前那些石油大亨贪得无厌，彼此争夺重要的土地，但是也会大举投资油田，以求取最大的产量和利润。相对地，克里姆林宫开采石油的目标不仅是为了替国家开辟财源，也是想把石油当作政治工具，让俄罗斯再度成 为世界强权。
But the opportunity presented by oil could slip through the region's fingers. Despite the remarkable surge in oil prices, oil production in western Siberia has leveled off in recent years. Output barely rose from 2004 to 2007—a period when the rulers of the Kremlin, a cold-eyed and control-oriented crew, seized choice fields once held by private oil barons. The oligarchs, as they were known, were rapacious sorts who jousted among themselves for spoils. But they also heavily invested in the fields in order to maximize production and profits. The Kremlin, by contrast, aims to exploit oil not only as a source of national wealth, but also as a political tool for making Russia a great world power once again. Its heavy-handed tactics have made foreign investors wary and could undermine the boom—and with it Khanty-Mansi's chances for a brighter future.
西伯利亚西部蕴藏庞大的石油矿层，但一位被放逐到劳改营内受苦的马克思主义革命分子曾称这片土地为「地球的荒地」。不过对自愿前来的人而言，这片石 油之乡看起来有其迷人的野性与原始特质。这个地区主要是由茂密的西伯利亚针叶林带和泥炭沼泽构成;针叶林带的树木以细长的桦木、雪松与松树为主，泥炭沼泽一年大多呈冰封状态，有些地点还会冒出甲烷。此处没有高山，丘陵也很少见，但有许多湖泊、河川与溪流。
WESTERN SIBERIA'S great oil deposits lie under lands that an exiled Marxist revolutionary, suffering in the gulag, once called the "waste places of the Earth." But to someone visiting by choice, oil country looks fetchingly wild and pristine. The terrain is dominated by taiga—dense forest of spindly birch, cedar, and pine—and boloto, peaty marsh that is frozen for most of the year and in spots bubbles with methane. There are no mountains and few hills, but there are numerous lakes, rivers, and streams.
