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为什么追查普京的个人财产如此困难
Why Tracking Putin’s Wealth Is So Difficult

来源:纽约时报    2022-04-07 04:00



        Buried in a 421-page legal filing in an obscure court case is a single sentence, offered almost as an afterthought, about a meeting at a Geneva restaurant where two businessmen chatted about “a yacht which had been presented to Mr. Putin.”        在一个不起眼的法庭案件中,一份长达421页的法律文件里藏着一句话,几乎像是一条补充声明,描述了两名商人在日内瓦一家餐馆会面时谈论着“一艘送给普京先生的游艇”。
        The passing reference, cited in a 2010 judge’s decision in London on a financial dispute involving a shipping company, is the rare bit of public evidence directly linking President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia to any of the luxury boats, planes or villas associated with him over the years. It has taken on new significance as U.S. and European authorities pursue the hidden wealth of Mr. Putin and people close to him in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.        2010年伦敦一起涉及一家航运公司的财务纠纷中,法官在判词里引用了这句话,像这样直接将俄罗斯总统普京和这些年来任何与他有关的豪华船只、飞机或别墅联系起来的公开证据实属罕见。当美国和欧洲当局为应对俄罗斯入侵乌克兰而追查普京及其身边人的隐秘财富时,这句话具有了新的意义。
        But the British court document also holds a clue to why it has been so hard to clearly connect the Russian president to his rumored riches. The yacht, called the Olympia, was managed by a company in Cyprus, where corporation filings show that the true owner was not Mr. Putin — it was the Russian government.        但这份英国法庭文件也留下了一个线索,可以解释为什么很难将俄罗斯总统与他传闻中的财富联系起来。这艘名为“奥林匹亚”的游艇由塞浦路斯的一家公司管理,该公司的文件显示,其真正所有者不是普京,而是俄罗斯政府。
        Indeed, it is one of many extravagant assets long speculated to be Mr. Putin’s that actually are owned or controlled by the state, showing how much the private interests of the president and his inner circle have merged with those of the government he has dominated for two decades. Others include a sprawling resort, a fleet of expensive automobiles, fancy planes and still more yachts.        事实上,它是人们长期以来推测普京拥有的众多奢侈资产之一,这些资产实际上由国家拥有或控制,说明总统及其核心圈子的私人利益与他统治了二十年的政府利益是混合在一起的。其他奢侈资产包括一栋庞大的度假别墅、一系列昂贵汽车、豪华飞机和更多游艇。
        The United States and its allies have created a multinational task force to track and seize assets of at least 50 wealthy Russians, including Mr. Putin, and announced rewards for information that helps in the effort. On Wednesday, officials announced sanctions against Mr. Putin’s two adult daughters.        美国及其盟国成立了一个多国工作组,以追踪和查封包括普京在内的至少50名富有俄罗斯人的资产,并悬赏征求有用的信息。周三,官员宣布对普京的两个成年女儿实施制裁。
        But some analysts question whether such actions will have much impact on the Russian president, who has never been found to personally own much worth confiscating.        但一些分析人士质疑此类行动对俄罗斯总统能够产生多大的影响,因为人们从未发现他有多少值得没收的个人财产。
        While there has been much media and public discussion that oligarchs and old Putin friends could be secretly holding valuable property on his behalf, or keeping his cash for him in offshore companies and Swiss bank accounts, many of his more obvious luxuries are embedded in state-owned enterprises and largely beyond the reach of Western sanctions.        尽管有很多媒体和公众讨论过,寡头和普京的老朋友可能会代表他秘密持有价值高昂的财产,或者将他的现金存放在离岸公司和瑞士银行账户中,但他许多更显眼的奢侈资产都被纳入了国有企业,并且在很大程度上超出了西方制裁的范围。
        Alina Polyakova, an expert on Russian foreign affairs who leads the Center for European Policy Analysis, said that because government resources and agencies were most likely used to shield at least some of his purported wealth, targeting Mr. Putin personally with sanctions was mainly symbolic.        领导欧洲政策分析中心的俄罗斯外交事务专家阿丽娜·波利亚科娃表示,由于政府资源和机构最有可能被用来保护至少部分据称属于他的财富,因此针对普京个人实施的制裁大多是象征性的。
        “To get to him, as well, we’d have to sanction the entire Russian government,” she said. “And, of course, there are reasons why Europe and the United States are not prepared to do so.”        “要制裁到他,我们就不得不制裁整个俄罗斯政府,”她说。“当然,欧洲和美国不准备这样做是有原因的。”
        Economically blocking the whole of the Russian state would mean, for instance, fully blacklisting Gazprom, one of the world’s largest energy companies and a major source of natural gas in Europe. So far, the company has faced only limited sanctions aimed mainly at restricting its purchases of certain debt and equity, even as worldwide outrage grows over apparent Russian atrocities in Ukraine.        例如,在经济上封锁整个俄罗斯国家意味着将俄罗斯天然气工业股份公司全面列入黑名单,该公司是世界上最大的能源公司之一,也是欧洲的主要天然气来源。即使全世界对俄罗斯在乌克兰明显实施的暴行越来越愤怒,但到目前为止,该公司只面临有限的制裁,主要是为了限制其购买某些债务和股权。
        Yet, Gazprom figures in any calculus of Mr. Putin’s possible wealth. Though luxury real estate would seem to have little to do with its core mission, the state-run gas company built a plush hideaway that the Russian president enjoys in the mountainous Altai region of Siberia. Despite claims that the project was not connected to the Kremlin, a report co-written by a former deputy prime minister and Putin critic, Boris Nemtsov, noted that the location was “being provided with security by the FSO” — the federal protective service assigned to the Russian president and other high-level officials.        然而,俄罗斯天然气工业股份公司在普京可能拥有的财富中占有一席之地。这家国有天然气公司在西伯利亚阿尔泰山区建造了俄罗斯总统喜爱的豪华世外桃源,尽管其核心使命中根本不存在开发豪华物业这一项。尽管声称该项目与克里姆林宫无关,但由一位前副总理和普京的批评者鲍里斯·涅姆佐夫共同撰写的一份报告指出,该地点“由FSO提供安全保障”,FSO是指派给俄罗斯总统和其他高级官员的联邦警卫保护。
        The mountain resort was among 20 properties described in the 2012 report by Mr. Nemtsov as being available to Mr. Putin, along with dozens of luxury aircraft, four yachts, and 11 wristwatches with a retail value of nearly $700,000, all allegedly paid for with public funds.        该山区度假村是涅姆佐夫在2012年的报告中描述的20处房产之一,这些房产均供普京使用,除此之外还有数十架豪华飞机、四艘游艇和11块零售价值近70万美元的手表,据称所有这些都由公共基金支付。
        Mr. Nemtsov was assassinated in 2015, shot in the back while crossing a bridge in view of the Kremlin.        涅姆佐夫于2015年被暗杀,背部中弹,当时他正走在一座面对克里姆林宫的桥上。
        Because of the efforts by the few independent news organizations operating in Russia before the recent crackdown on free speech, as well as opposition voices like Mr. Nemtsov and Aleksei A. Navalny, the notion that Mr. Putin is living large on the taxpayers’ dime is hardly a secret. The Kremlin has long denied that he lives beyond his means — officially, he collects a salary of about $140,000 and has a small apartment in Moscow. But his spokesman told a Russian newspaper, in response to Mr. Nemtsov’s allegations, that the Russian president also uses state-owned residences and vehicles “in accordance with the law.”        在最近对言论自由进行镇压之前,由于俄罗斯运营的少数独立新闻机构以及涅姆佐夫和阿列克谢·纳瓦尔尼等反对派的努力,普京靠纳税人的钱过着奢侈生活的说法已经不是什么秘密。克里姆林宫长期以来一直否认他过着跟他的收入不符的生活——官方说法是,他的年薪约为14万美元(约合89万人民币),在莫斯科有一间小公寓。但他的发言人在回应涅姆佐夫的指控时对一家俄罗斯报纸说,俄罗斯总统也“依法”使用国有住宅和车辆。
        The presence of Mr. Putin’s protective detail has been seen as a telltale sign of his hidden ties to various extravagances. Sergei Kolesnikov, a former business partner of a Putin ally, wrote an open letter in 2010 asserting that government funds had been diverted to help develop a $1 billion estate on the Black Sea that became known as “Putin’s palace.”        在各种奢侈资产周围出现了普京安保人员的身影,这被视为他和这些资产之间有隐秘联系的迹象。普京一名盟友的前商业伙伴谢尔盖·科列斯尼科夫在2010年了写了一封公开信,声称政府资金被挪用于开发黑海上一处10亿美元的地产,该地产后来被称为“普京的宫殿”。
        An investigation released last year by Mr. Navalny, the jailed opposition leader, found that the palace had been guarded by members of the federal protective service, and that Russia’s internal security agency, the FSB, had at one point enforced a no-fly zone over it.        被监禁的反对派领袖纳瓦尔尼去年公布的一项调查发现,这座宫殿曾由联邦保护机构成员守卫,俄罗斯内部安全机构联邦安全局(FSB)曾一度在其上空设置禁飞区。
        Most recently, Mr. Navalny’s team reported that it had linked crew members on a $700 million superyacht to the same Kremlin protective detail, amid speculation that the vessel, whose ownership is obscured by offshore shell companies, was secretly used by Mr. Putin. The 459-foot yacht, named the Scheherazade, has two helicopter pads and is topped with a cluster of satellite domes. It is currently dry-docked in Italy.        最近,纳瓦尔尼的团队报告称,一艘价值7亿美元的超级游艇上的船员与克里姆林宫的安保人员有关联。有人猜测,这艘被离岸空壳公司掩盖了所有权的游艇曾被普京秘密使用。这艘459英尺(约合140米)的游艇名为“山鲁佐德号”,有两个直升机停机位,顶部有一组卫星天线。它目前停在意大利的干船坞。
        “If the owner of the yacht cannot be identified — it’s some offshore company from the Marshall Islands — then we will try to establish who works on it and who pays them salaries,” Maria Pevchikh, a member of Mr. Navalny’s team, said in a video describing the investigation.        纳瓦尔尼团队的成员玛利亚·佩夫奇赫在一段描述调查的视频中说,“如果不能确定游艇的主人——是马绍尔群岛的某家离岸公司——那么我们将试图确定谁在游艇上工作,谁给他们发工资。”
        The New York Times, which first reported that U.S. officials had indications the yacht could be tied to Mr. Putin, has not been able to independently confirm the Navalny team’s findings about the crew’s security connections, and American officials declined to specify what information they had that could pierce the veil of corporate secrecy surrounding the vessel’s offshore ownership.        《纽约时报》率先报道了美国官员的发现,认为有迹象表明这艘游艇可能与普京有关。时报未能独立证实纳瓦尔尼团队关于船员的安保背景的发现,美国官员拒绝具体说明他们掌握了哪些信息可以打破围绕这艘船离岸所有权的公司秘密掩护。
        Indeed, many jurisdictions traditionally have offered not only tax advantages to managing assets through offshore shells, but also corporation registries that make it difficult, if not impossible, to publicly identify the ultimate owners. It is primarily through leaks from law firms specializing in these services that wealthy Russians have been discovered to be frequent clients.        事实上,许多司法管辖地传统上不仅为通过离岸空壳公司管理资产提供税收优惠,还提供公司注册处,这使得公开确定最终所有者变得极其困难,甚至根本不可能。人们主要是通过专门从事这些服务的律师事务所泄露的信息,才得以发现富有的俄罗斯人是这些司法管辖地的常客。
        And sometimes the Russian government itself is the beneficiary.        有时,俄罗斯政府本身就是受益人。
        Leaked files known as the Paradise Papers, from the Appleby law firm in Bermuda, revealed offshore projects on behalf of several enterprises controlled by the Russian state, including VTB Capital, an investment bank, and Gazprom. Another involved the $53.9 million purchase of a Bombardier Global 6000 private jet by an obscure Cyprus company, Genetechma Finance Ltd.        来自百慕大阿普尔比律师事务所的泄露文件,也就是所谓的“天堂文件”,披露了代表俄罗斯政府控制的几家企业的离岸项目,其中包括投资银行俄罗斯外贸银行和俄罗斯天然气工业股份公司。另一桩交易涉及塞浦路斯一家鲜为人知的公司基尼泰克玛金融有限公司,它以5390万美元购买了一架庞巴迪Global 6000型私人飞机。
        Appleby’s records show that Genetechma was operating, ultimately, on behalf of VEB, a state-owned economic development bank with ties to Russian intelligence. VEB, whose chairman has reportedly used private jets, controlled the Cyprus-based Genetechma through a Luxembourg subsidiary.        阿普尔比的记录显示,基尼泰克玛最终是代表与俄罗斯情报机构有联系的国有经济开发银行VEB运营的。据报道,VEB的董事长曾使用私人飞机,该银行通过一家卢森堡子公司控制了总部位于塞浦路斯的基尼泰克玛。
        A different Cyprus company surfaced in the ownership chain of the Olympia yacht, whose connection to Mr. Putin appeared in the British court documents. The litigation involved convoluted allegations of self-dealing among executives at several Russian shipping companies, including Sovcomflot, whose majority owner is the Russian government.        奥林匹亚号游艇的所有权链中出现了另一家塞浦路斯公司,该公司与普京的关系出现在英国法庭文件中。该诉讼涉及对几家俄罗斯航运公司高管之间自相交易的错综指控,其中包括SCF集团,其主要所有者是俄罗斯政府。
        In a decision by a London court in 2010, Justice Andrew Smith described how various players involved attributed their positions of influence to having “a good relationship” with Mr. Putin, and in one instance, recalled a meeting at the Lipp Brasserie in Geneva where the gift of the Olympia to him was mentioned. The yacht, estimated to cost $35 million to $50 million in 2002 and reportedly outfitted with marble baths, extensive gilding and a Jacuzzi, was said to be “managed by Unicom,” a Cyprus-based company.        在伦敦法院2010年的一项裁决中,安德鲁·史密斯法官描述了涉案人员如何将他们的影响力归功于同普京的“良好关系”,有人回顾了日内瓦利普酒馆的一次会面,其中提到了奥林匹亚号被赠送给普京。这艘游艇在2002年价值约为3500万到5000万美元,据称配备了大理石浴缸和一个按摩浴缸,金碧辉煌的内饰,并且据信“由Unicom管理”,这是一家塞浦路斯公司。
        Corporation records in Cyprus, which in recent years has become more rigorous about requiring transparency of ownership, show that Unicom was owned by a Bermuda company, whose “ultimate parent corporation” was a state-owned shipping company in Russia.        塞浦路斯的公司记录显示,Unicom由百慕大的一家公司所有,该公司的“最终母公司”是俄罗斯的一家国有航运公司。塞浦路斯近年来对所有权透明度的要求越来越严格。
        The Olympia, which sails under a Cayman Islands registration, was last known to be in the Baltic Sea near St. Petersburg.        奥林匹亚号是在开曼群岛注册的,最后一次出现是在圣彼得堡附近的波罗的海海域。
                
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