In 1999, the late Boris Berezovsky had lunch with the editor and senior journalists of the FT. I had already met him in Moscow on several occasions. Berezovsky had just played a role in persuading those close to Boris Yeltsin to appoint Vladimir Putin, then head of the FSB, Russia’s security service (whom Berezovsky had known when Putin was deputy mayor of St Petersburg), to be prime minister and his successor as president. “Why”, I asked, “did you trust a former KGB agent with power?” I have long remembered his reply: “Russia”, he said, was “now a capitalist country. In capitalist countries, capitalists hold power.”
已故的鲍里斯•别列佐夫斯基(Boris Berezovsky)在1999年曾与英国《金融时报》主编及几位资深记者共进午餐。我更早以前在莫斯科就见过他几回。别列佐夫斯基那时刚刚在一件事上发挥了作用，这件事就是说服鲍里斯•叶利钦(Boris Yeltsin)身边的人，任命弗拉基米尔•普京(Vladimir Putin)为总理，并把他作为叶利钦总统的接班人。当时普京是俄罗斯联邦安全局(FSB)局长，别列佐夫斯基是在普京担任圣彼得堡副市长时认识他的。我问道：“为什么你会让一个前克格勃(KGB)特工掌权？”我一直记得他是怎么回答的。他说：“俄罗斯现在是资本主义国家，而在资本主义国家，资本家掌握着权力。”