克里姆林宫的权力游戏

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?

在俄罗斯战机轰炸叙利亚、莫斯科和西方几乎天天掐架之际，欧洲和美国的人们再次愤慨地质问：弗拉基米尔•普京(Vladimir Putin)到底在玩什么游戏?

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.

曾任俄罗斯唯一独立电视台TV Rain总编辑的米哈伊尔•济加尔(Mikhail Zygar)，在普京掌权的17年的一大半时间里都在研究这个问题。他因此写出了《克里姆林宫的手下们》(All the Kremlin’s Men)一书。该书英文版在俄文版发行一年后发行。

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.

让西方读者感到困惑的是，作者声称，我们所认为的普京在玩的游戏，大部分其实根本不是他真正在玩的。他用了300多页篇幅讲述了关于权力争斗如何展开、政策决策如何做出的内部故事，最后总结道：“我们想象的那个普京实际上并不存在。”

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.

该书描绘的是普京身边的人——总共100多号人物出场——的阴谋算计，而非普京本人。与其他关于普京的书籍相比，这种方法更能让人了解克里姆林宫的内部运作。普京的随从是独特的：腐败的企业大亨、前特工、信仰东正教的保守派人士、世故的政治化妆师(spin-doctor)以及强硬派民族主义者，都在争取普京的支持，而他们的价值观和议程往往是截然相反的。他们还经常争抢权力或金钱。

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、喜欢新鲜玩意的俄罗斯总理德米特里•梅德韦杰夫(Dmitry Medvedev)希望实现经济现代化，并与西方发展更为和睦的关系。普京前顾问、如今担任俄罗斯石油公司(Rosneft)董事长的伊戈尔•谢钦(Igor Sechin)则相信由国家控制的经济，并竭力阻扰梅德韦杰夫的每一个举措。10月俄罗斯石油公司宣布将收购另一家国有石油公司Bashneft的主要股权——梅德韦杰夫曾试图阻止该交易以便让该公司私有化——谢钦可谓是取得了一场胜利。

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.

济加尔对有意思的人物不吝笔墨。他对谢钦的刻画是书中最引人入胜的一部分内容——将谢钦描述为喜欢喝橘子汁、总是坐小巴出行而且几乎不需要睡觉的“生化人”——这在一定程度上是因为他当过特工，长得像牛，而且出了名的狡诈，让他看起来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.”

济加尔写道：“他令人害怕，他自己也深知这一点。他会召集大家开会，把所有人骂得体无完肤，然后离开，等到下属们松开领带，打开白兰地，准备放松一下的时候，他会假装落了什么，突然折返，把刚缓过一口气的下属们彻底搞废。”

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.

济加尔最擅长描写侍臣们的内讧。例如，在描绘前寡头米哈伊尔•霍多尔科夫斯基(Mikhail Khodorkovsky)的那一章中，济加尔远不止写了人们熟知的那些事情——霍多尔科夫斯基的商业帝国如何覆灭和他本人如何被监禁。那一章讲述了是谁提出来对霍多尔科夫斯基收网、为什么以及如何办到的。

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，《克里姆林宫的手下们》未能回答是什么(或者是谁)塑造了普京政策的大方向。为何一个谨慎的改革家转变为一个日益挑衅西方的威权统治者?

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.

围绕普京玩弄阴谋诡计的侍臣们展开的主要情节，让济加尔将普京描写成其随从的操纵的产物。这是一些内部人士认同的观点。书中人物之一、前政治化妆师格列布•帕夫洛夫斯基(Gleb Pavlovsky)同意这一观点。如今已是批评克里姆林宫的政治分析师的他表示，内部圈子使用“普京集体”作为克里姆林宫决策的标签。

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.

但这没有解释普京的意识形态的演变历程。济加尔试图通过涉足另一个话题——普京的思维，以时间顺序对这一历程进行梳理。济加尔分析了普京如何逐渐对美国总统乔治•W•布什(George W Bush)等西方领导人感到失望、美国颠覆他国政权的政策如何让普京确信美国也在策划推翻他自己，但这些分析与该书花大量笔墨讲述的主要故事缺乏联系。

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.

尽管如此，该书仍是一块里程碑。再没有别的俄罗斯记者基于独立报道写成一本关于普京的书并在俄罗斯出版。济加尔感受到了后果：他于去年底辞去了TV Rain的工作，据报道是因为该书让书中一些声名显赫的人物感到不快。