I'm a journalist and a writer,

我是一位記者兼作家，

and my new book is called “Collusion,” and it's about Donald Trump and Russia.

我的新書叫做 Collusion，內容關於唐納・川普以及俄羅斯

Putin and money, they're a taboo topic inside Russia.

普丁與金錢，這在俄羅斯國內是一個禁忌的話題

I wrote stories about this in 2007 based on sources inside his presidential administration who were saying, quietly,

我在 2007 年時就已經寫過與此相關的故事，且是以來自普丁政府人員的資訊為根據，那時他們偷偷在說，

that he was worth about $40 billion.

普丁的身價約為四百億美元

That was a decade ago.

而那已經是十年前的事了

The thing is Russia's a kleptocracy.

重點是，俄羅斯政府是「竊盜統治」(註：統治者藉由擴張政治權力以侵佔人民的財產及權利)

It's also the world's biggest oil producer,

它同時也是全球最大的石油供給國，

and the people at the top of the Russian state are all kind of multi-billionaires.

且身處俄羅斯上級社會階層的都是些億萬富翁

And Putin is at the head of this pyramid although officially his salary's $100 thousand a year.

而普丁就站在這個金字塔的最頂端，儘管按照官方說法，他的年收入是大約十萬美元

Putin allegedly controls 37% of Russian oil company Surgutneftegaz, 4.5% of natural gas company Gazprom.

據稱，普丁分別握有蘇爾古特石油天然氣公司以及俄羅斯天然氣公司百分之三十七和百分之四點五的股份

He also has holdings in commodities trader Gunvor.

他另外也握有大宗商品貿易公司貢渥集團的股份

In 2012, estimates of his wealth were upped to $70 billion.

在 2012 年，有人預測他所持有的財富已經高達將近七百億美元

Now, everyone in the Russian elite knows he's the richest guy in town by a long way,

如今，俄羅斯的中堅份子都知道他是國內最有錢的那個、其程度遙遙領先其他人

but the beauty of the system is that formally nothing belongs to him and everything is held by proxies,

但這個系統的驚奇之處就在於：形式上，沒有任何東西是真正屬於他，且全部的財產都由代理人所掌控，

some of whom are now under US sanctions.

而其中有些代理人現在正處於美國政府的制裁下

It's a kind of clever system,

這是種蠻聰明的系統，

but of course he's enormously rich and for Putin,

但當然、普丁是非常富有的，而且對他而言，

the thing about money is it's kind of liquid power, and power ultimately is what interests him.

握有金錢的重點在於金錢算是權力的形式之一，而最終、權力才是吸引他的東西