评论
打印
His next stop: Russia.
下一站是俄罗斯。
By the time Sater arrived in the mid-'90s, the Soviet Union had collapsed,
萨特到俄罗斯是已经是九十年代中期，前苏联已经解体，
Boris Yeltsin was in power, and Moscow had embraced a lawless version of capitalism.
鲍里斯·叶利钦当权，莫斯科处于没有法纪的资本主义时期。
The city was anarchic, ruthless, but full of opportunity.
这座城市充斥着无政府主义，残酷无情，但机遇遍地。
Through connections on Wall Street, Sater started a telecommunications company in Russia
通过和华尔街的关系，萨特在俄罗斯开了一家电信公司，
selling transatlantic cable for voice and data transmission from the newly democratic countries of the former Soviet Union to AT&T.
跨大西洋销售电缆，为前苏联解体形成的新兴民主国家和美国电话电报公司提供语音和数据传输。
During that era, the once-powerful Soviet military and intelligence services were in disarray.
那段时期，曾经强大的前苏联军事和情报服务陷入一片混乱。
Large swaths of both were being privatized.
绝大部分都私有化了。
A bevy of former military officers and intelligence operatives went to work for businessmen.
一群前苏联军官和情报人员都为商人工作，
Some legitimate, some with ties to organized crime, all looking for a piece of the new Russian economy.
有些是合法的，有些还和组织犯罪有关，他们都期待着新的俄罗斯经济。
One man, a senior Soviet military intelligence official in Afghanistan during the Red Army’s occupation,
在苏联红军占领阿富汗期间的一名前苏联高级军事情报官员，
took an interest in Sater and his telecom company.
对萨特和其电信公司很感兴趣。
Sater won't divulge the man's real name.
萨特不愿透露这位官员的真实姓名。
He just refers to him as "E".
萨特称之为“E”。
But he was an acquaintance who changed the American's life in unimaginable ways.
但是这位官员以不可思议的方式改变了美国人的生活，他是一位老熟人。
The two soon became close, and Sater routinely went to banyas (saunas) with E and his friends to drink and relax.
两个人很快走得很近，萨特和E还有朋友们定期去洗浴房（桑拿浴室）喝酒放松。
Almost all of E’s friends were also former high-ranking military or intelligence officials.
E的朋友们几乎都是前苏联的高级军官或情报官员。
One night, the group went out to dinner,
一天晚上，他们去吃晚餐，
and Sater met an American named Milton Blane, who introduced himself as a consultant.
萨特见到了一位叫做弥尔顿·布莱恩的美国人，弥尔顿·布莱恩自称是顾问。
A few days later, Blane invited him to a popular British pub in central Moscow.
几天后，布莱恩邀请萨特去莫斯科市中心一家很受欢迎的英国酒吧。
He told Sater he was connected to "some serious people,"
布莱恩告诉萨特，他与“一些身份特殊的人”有联系，
guys who had extraordinary access to senior levels of the Russian armed forces.
这些人与俄罗斯军队高层有特殊接触。
OK, Sater said, so what?
萨特说，好啊，那又怎样?
Blane was an officer of the Defense Intelligence Agency, operating out of the U.S. Embassy in Moscow.
布莱恩是美国国防情报局的官员，在美国驻莫斯科大使馆工作，
Sater, with his ties to "E" and his friends, could be very helpful.
由于萨特和E的联系还有他的朋友们的一些联系，萨特对布莱恩来说恐怕会非常有用。
To Sater's astonishment, Blane was recruiting him to become an intelligence asset.
让萨特惊讶的是，布莱恩要招募他为情报人员。
The U.S. was working on anti-missile defense systems, and the DIA wanted to find out how Moscow's worked.
美国正在研制反导弹防御系统，美国国防情报局想知道俄罗斯政府是如何运作的。
(Former FBI and CIA officials support Sater's account.
（前联邦调查局和中央情报局官员支持萨特的说法。
Like many government officials interviewed for this story, they asked for anonymity because they weren't authorized to speak about the matter.)
正像很多政府官员对此接受采访时说的一样，这些官员要求匿名，因为他们没有权限谈论此事。）
Sater says it took him "about three seconds" to decide.
萨特说他花了“大约三秒钟”来做决定。
"I'm in," he told Blane, a decision he now says was driven by both "patriotism" and a "romantic notion" of espionage.
“我加入，”他告诉布莱恩，他现在做出的决定是被“爱国主义”和间谍活动的“浪漫主义概念”共同驱使的。
He had no idea what he was getting himself into.
他当时根本不知道自己在干些什么。
译文由可可原创，仅供学习交流使用，未经许可请勿转载。
