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Russian spies
俄國 熊間諜們
Unearthing Moscow's moles
挖出莫斯科內應
How the FBI claims to have caught Putin's spooks in New York
FBI是怎么宣布抓住普京在紐約的探子呢
HOW American sanctions might bite on Russian banks is a matter of great interest to the Kremlin. So Russia's Foreign Intelligence Service, the SVR, asked one of its undercover agents in New York to find out, prosecutors claim. Evgeny Buryakov was outwardly an executive at Vnesheconombank, a Russian state-owned financial agency. But in real life he was allegedly “Zhenya”—working with two Russian intelligence officers who doubled as diplomats, also in New York.
檢察官說，美國制裁如何打擊俄羅斯銀行攸關克里姆林宮的切身利益。因此俄羅斯海外情報部門，SVR詢問了它在紐約的一處地下情報部門找出結果。葉夫根尼·布里亞科夫對外是俄羅斯銀行的經理，這是一家俄羅斯國有金融機構。但是實際上。他被控為“振亞”——和另兩位外交官員共事且都為情報機構人員，他們現也在紐約。
Mr Buryakov's mission involved collecting economic intelligence and spotting potential sources. It has ended in disaster. On January 26th news broke of his arrest by the FBI. He faces trial and, if found guilty, up to 15 years in prison. His alleged colleagues have left America.
葉夫根尼·布里亞科夫的任務是收集經濟情報和找出潛在資源。在災難中結束了。一月26日，新聞報道他被FBI逮捕。他面臨審判，而且如果有罪的話，最高旻霖15年監禁。其余面臨指控的同事已經離開美國。
What gave the FBI its first clue? Was it good surveillance, a cryptographic breakthrough, success in penetrating the Russian spy service or sloppy tradecraft by Vladimir Putin's spooks? The FBI's evidence suggests a lengthy period of observation. The three men communicated with brief phone messages, consisting of unremarkable exchanges about “tickets” and other everyday items, and handed over secret material with “brush contacts”—spy jargon for exchanging bags, folded newspapers and the like during fleeting encounters.
什么給了FBI一手線索？是優質監控，暗號突破，成功滲透到俄羅斯間諜機構或是普京間諜們粗心的業務技術？FBI的證據顯示是長期的觀察起了作用。三個人用簡短的信息交流，其中有日常交談，關于“罰單”和日常瑣事，用“接頭包”（間諜黑話，指交換包包）傳遞秘密資料，卷起的報紙和類似于短暫碰頭的手段。
It is not clear whether Mr Buryakov's alleged colleagues were told to go by the authorities, or fled when they realised that they were under surveillance. The FBI appears to have bugged the secret part of a Russian diplomatic mission in New York—part of the evidence includes the two colleagues grousing about their un-James-Bondlike working conditions. But the strongest evidence seems to have come when Mr Buryakov fell foul of an FBI sting operation, based on someone posing as a potential investor in a Russian casino. Mr Buryakov has made no public statement, and his employer(s) could not be reached for comment.
還不清楚布里亞科夫受指控的同事們是否被當局勒令離開，或者當他們意識到他們被監視的時候逃走了。FBI看起來已經監聽了俄羅斯在紐約的一項外交任務的隱秘部分——部分證據包括兩個同事抱怨他們一點也沒有詹姆斯邦德的工作環境。但是最有力的證據好像來自當布里亞科夫被FBI突擊行動抓捕是根據謀人指出俄羅斯的賭場里有一個潛在的投資者。布里亞科夫沒有任何公開聲明，并且他的雇員們也沒有發表評論。
A previous round-up of undercover Russian “illegals” in America in 2010 ended in a spy swap in Vienna reminiscent of the cold war. Mr Buryakov may be hoping for that—though that was in a different era, when the American authorities sought to play down the threat from Russia in the hope of preserving sort-of-amicable relations. But these days America has little reason to pretend to be friends with Mr Putin.
最近一起俄羅斯在美國的臥底非法活動新聞是在2010年結束的間諜互換，地點在維也納這個勾起冷戰回憶的地方。布里亞科夫可能希望那種事情發生——盡管那時候時代不同，當時美國當局還在尋求降低蘇聯威脅的辦法，希望保存一些還算友好的關系。但是這些天美國沒有理由再對普京假裝友好。譯者:彭威
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