克里姆林宮的權力游戲

As Russian military aircraft pound Syria, and barely a day passes without recriminations between Moscow and the west, people in Europe and the US once again ask in exasperation: what is Vladimir Putin’s game?

在俄羅斯戰(zhàn)機轟炸敘利亞、莫斯科和西方幾乎天天掐架之際，歐洲和美國的人們再次憤慨地質問：弗拉基米爾•普京(Vladimir Putin)到底在玩什么游戲?

Mikhail Zygar, former editor of Russia’s only independent television channel TV Rain, has explored that question for the better part of Mr Putin’s 17 years in power. The result is his book All the Kremlin’s Men, available in English a year after the Russian original came out.

曾任俄羅斯唯一獨立電視臺TV Rain總編輯的米哈伊爾•濟加爾(Mikhail Zygar)，在普京掌權的17年的一大半時間里都在研究這個問題。他因此寫出了《克里姆林宮的手下們》(All the Kremlin’s Men)一書。該書英文版在俄文版發(fā)行一年后發(fā)行。

Perplexingly for western readers, the author claims that most of what we ascribe to the Russian president is not really his game at all. “Putin, as we imagine him, does not actually exist,” he concludes after more than 300 pages of inside tales about how power struggles and policy decisions have played out.

讓西方讀者感到困惑的是，作者聲稱，我們所認為的普京在玩的游戲，大部分其實根本不是他真正在玩的。他用了300多頁篇幅講述了關于權力爭斗如何展開、政策決策如何做出的內部故事，最后總結道：“我們想象的那個普京實際上并不存在。”

Instead of the president himself, we are shown the machinations of the men around him — a cast of more than 100 characters. This approach sheds more light on the inner workings of the Kremlin than many other Putin books. The entourage is unique: corrupt tycoons, former spies, Orthodox Christian conservatives, cynical spin-doctors and nationalist hardliners fight for backing from the boss for their often diametrically opposed values and agendas. Just as often they battle over power or money.

該書描繪的是普京身邊的人——總共100多號人物出場——的陰謀算計，而非普京本人。與其他關于普京的書籍相比，這種方法更能讓人了解克里姆林宮的內部運作。普京的隨從是獨特的：腐敗的企業(yè)大亨、前特工、信仰東正教的保守派人士、世故的政治化妝師(spin-doctor)以及強硬派民族主義者，都在爭取普京的支持，而他們的價值觀和議程往往是截然相反的。他們還經常爭搶權力或金錢。

Dmitry Medvedev, the self-conscious, gadget-loving prime minister, wants to modernise the economy and pursue a more amicable relationship with the west. Igor Sechin, Mr Putin’s former adviser who now heads state oil company Rosneft, believes in a state-controlled economy, and does his best to thwart Mr Medvedev’s every move. He scored a victory this month when the government announced Rosneft would acquire a majority stake in fellow state oil company Bashneft — a deal Mr Medvedev had tried to block in order to allow the group’s privatisation.

在意自己的形象、喜歡新鮮玩意的俄羅斯總理德米特里•梅德韋杰夫(Dmitry Medvedev)希望實現經濟現代化，并與西方發(fā)展更為和睦的關系。普京前顧問、如今擔任俄羅斯石油公司(Rosneft)董事長的伊戈爾•謝欽(Igor Sechin)則相信由國家控制的經濟，并竭力阻擾梅德韋杰夫的每一個舉措。10月俄羅斯石油公司宣布將收購另一家國有石油公司Bashneft的主要股權——梅德韋杰夫曾試圖阻止該交易以便讓該公司私有化——謝欽可謂是取得了一場勝利。

Zygar has made the most of his thrilling subject. His profile of Mr Sechin — described as a “cyborg” who loves orange juice, always travels by minibus and barely needs any sleep — makes for the some of the most fascinating reading, partly because his spy history, bull-like physiognomy and notorious scheming makes him seem like the perfect villain character.

濟加爾對有意思的人物不吝筆墨。他對謝欽的刻畫是書中最引人入勝的一部分內容——將謝欽描述為喜歡喝橘子汁、總是坐小巴出行而且?guī)缀醪恍枰X的“生化人”——這在一定程度上是因為他當過特工，長得像牛，而且出了名的狡詐，讓他看起來就是完美的反派人物。

“He arouses fear and knows it,” writes Zygar. “He can hold a meeting and smash everyone to smithereens, leaving his subordinates loosening their ties and reaching for the brandy when he departs. Then he’ll suddenly come back into the room, pretending to have forgotten something, and finish them off.”

濟加爾寫道：“他令人害怕，他自己也深知這一點。他會召集大家開會，把所有人罵得體無完膚，然后離開，等到下屬們松開領帶，打開白蘭地，準備放松一下的時候，他會假裝落了什么，突然折返，把剛緩過一口氣的下屬們徹底搞廢。”

Zygar is at his best where he describes courtiers’ infighting. The chapter on former oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky, for example, goes far beyond the well-known tale of the smashing of his business empire and his incarceration. It describes who developed the idea of reining him in, why and how it was done.

濟加爾最擅長描寫侍臣們的內訌。例如，在描繪前寡頭米哈伊爾•霍多爾科夫斯基(Mikhail Khodorkovsky)的那一章中，濟加爾遠不止寫了人們熟知的那些事情——霍多爾科夫斯基的商業(yè)帝國如何覆滅和他本人如何被監(jiān)禁。那一章講述了是誰提出來對霍多爾科夫斯基收網、為什么以及如何辦到的。

Yet All the Kremlin’s Men fails to crack the question of what — or who — shapes the big direction of Mr Putin’s policies. Why did a cautious reformer morph into an authoritarian ruler increasingly belligerent towards the west?

然而，《克里姆林宮的手下們》未能回答是什么(或者是誰)塑造了普京政策的大方向。為何一個謹慎的改革家轉變?yōu)橐粋€日益挑釁西方的威權統(tǒng)治者?

The main plot of the scheming courtiers leads Zygar to present Mr Putin as a product of his entourage’s manipulations. That is a view some insiders share. Gleb Pavlovsky, a former spin-doctor featured in the book, agrees. Now a political analyst critical of the Kremlin, he says the inner circle uses “collective Putin” as a label for the Kremlin’s decisions.

圍繞普京玩弄陰謀詭計的侍臣們展開的主要情節(jié)，讓濟加爾將普京描寫成其隨從的操縱的產物。這是一些內部人士認同的觀點。書中人物之一、前政治化妝師格列布•帕夫洛夫斯基(Gleb Pavlovsky)同意這一觀點。如今已是批評克里姆林宮的政治分析師的他表示，內部圈子使用“普京集體”作為克里姆林宮決策的標簽。

But that does not explain Mr Putin’s ideological journey. Zygar attempts to chronicle it with excursions into the realm of Mr Putin’s thinking. But his analysis of how the president grew disillusioned with western counterparts such as US president George W Bush — or how US policies of regime change in other countries convinced him Washington was out to topple him as well — lacks a link to the deeply reported main story.

但這沒有解釋普京的意識形態(tài)的演變歷程。濟加爾試圖通過涉足另一個話題——普京的思維，以時間順序對這一歷程進行梳理。濟加爾分析了普京如何逐漸對美國總統(tǒng)喬治•W•布什(George W Bush)等西方領導人感到失望、美國顛覆他國政權的政策如何讓普京確信美國也在策劃推翻他自己，但這些分析與該書花大量筆墨講述的主要故事缺乏聯系。

Still, the book is a milestone. No other Russian journalist has written a Putin book based on independent reporting and published in Russia. Zygar has felt the consequences: he resigned from his job at TV Rain at the end of last year, reportedly because of the displeasure the book caused with some of its prominent protagonists.

盡管如此，該書仍是一塊里程碑。再沒有別的俄羅斯記者基于獨立報道寫成一本關于普京的書并在俄羅斯出版。濟加爾感受到了后果：他于去年底辭去了TV Rain的工作，據報道是因為該書讓書中一些聲名顯赫的人物感到不快。