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　　俄罗斯柔道在政治和财政支持下无往不胜，普京的柔道好友个个身价不菲；在俄罗斯，取得成功最好的方法就是拥有给力的人际关系。

普京的亿万富翁柔道俱乐部

　　柔道一词被解释为“柔和的方式”，但2月19日回响在圣彼得堡体育馆内俄罗斯柔道冠军赛上的肉搏声可听不出一丝温柔。看台上时不时传来“灭掉他”的喊声，那里挤满了粉丝和退役选手，其中很多人的耳朵和鼻子都伤痕累累。像往常一样，此次大赛的赞助者是这个城市杰出的柔道俱乐部Yawara-Neva名誉主席、柔道黑带——普京总理。虽然大赛组织者解释称，普京今年并不能出席，但所有人似乎都能感觉到他的到来。

　　自从2000年普京掌权之后，Yawara-Neva俱乐部和其总经理——普京儿时的柔道陪练卡迪-卢腾伯格都取得了飞速发展。在俄罗斯商业杂志《finans》本月公布的财富排行榜上，卢腾伯格比去年前进了17个名次，正式成为俄罗斯亿万富翁中的一员。17.5亿美元(约115亿人民币)对普京就任以前那个经营普通生意，推销柔道的卢腾伯格来说实在太多了。但是，对于圣彼得堡的那些会员来说，这些钱却不算什么。

　　国控天然气垄断企业——俄罗斯天然气公司由普京在圣彼得堡市长办公室的一位老友负责，卢腾伯格大部分财产都是通过和这家公司做生意赚来的。自2008年起，俄罗斯天然气公司开始向卢腾伯格销售其子公司，尤其是安装和提供管道的公司；接着在卢腾伯格掌管公司期间向其公司大量下订单。仅2009年一年，卢腾伯格的公司StroyGazMontazh就得到俄罗斯天然气公司的19项投标；虽然有时也通过拍卖的形式，但他确是拍卖中唯一的竞拍者。

　　StroyGazMontazh在俄罗斯天然气公司这些竞标者中主要的竞争对手是坚纳基-季姆琴科领导的一家公司。季姆琴科——身价亿万的石油商(财富总值89亿美元，约585亿人民币)，他是普京的另一位柔道伙伴，同时也曾经在1998年协助成立Yawara-Neva柔道俱乐部。这两个人都否认与普京的朋友关系对其生意有所帮助。去年4月在接受采访时，卢腾伯格说到：“认识这样一位高级国家官员目前在我们国家没有伤害到任何人，但也没有帮助到任何人；有这样一位朋友不能保证能赚到钱。”2008年，季姆琴科称，报道中描述的他与普京的关系太过夸张；并坚持说他的事业不是建立在别人帮助之下或者政治关系网上。

　　对于他们来说，教练和俄罗斯柔道界冠军对于和普京的关系非常自豪。卢腾伯格和俄罗斯天然气公司都是周六比赛的赞助商。大赛组织者弗拉基米尔-格拉亚琴科指着柔道训练垫上印有Yawara-Neva和俄罗斯天然气公司商标的横幅说：“我们都在一起。我们有来自政治和财政方面的支持，所以我们要做的就是继续赢得比赛。”有了足够的预算，赢得比赛到目前为止是很容易的。Yawara-Neva(Yawara指的是武术中一种钝器，Neva是说流经圣彼得堡的河流)已经连续7年赢得欧洲柔道比赛的冠军，比历史上任何参赛队伍都多。

　　从很多方面来说，Yawara-Neva都是前苏维埃柔道俱乐部的化身。20世纪60/70年代，普京和他的朋友们在那个俱乐部参加训练，他和朋友们构成一个紧密的圈子，彼此的关系比校友更进一层。除了卢登伯格和他的弟弟鲍里斯(以17.5亿美元，约115亿人民币位列哥哥之后)，普京的原班人马还包括瓦西里-雪斯塔可夫——Yawara-Neva的另一位赞助者。1999年，当普京被当时的总统鲍里斯-叶利钦任命为总理时，雪斯塔可夫突然离开了柔道教练工作岗位走向政治圈，协助普京创立了统一党，该党是普京早期的支持根基。2001年，统一党和另外两党合成统一俄罗斯党，作为政治机器，该党的党员几乎遍布国家的整个官僚机构和内阁。如今，雪斯塔可夫是另一个忠于克里姆林宫党派的代表，而他并没有上俄罗斯亿万富翁排行榜。

　　2007年，普京儿时的教练阿纳托利-拉赫林在采访时说：“据我所知，普京答应了科维奇、鲍里斯、瓦西里和其他男孩的要求；他们是很好的朋友，普京的性格保证了他们之间的友情是健康的。他会带着圣彼得堡的男孩们和他一起工作不是因为他们漂亮的眼睛，而是因为他信任真实努力的人。”

　　无不例外的，柔道界从民族精神和影响力上主导着俄罗斯。莫斯科队的资深教练谢尔盖-尤达耶夫看着那些垫子说到：“没有政治支持，俱乐部随时可能面临倒闭。Yawara正在利用那些关系。”但他苦涩的补充道：“见鬼，如果换作我也会那么做。”谁会去责备他？或许柔道不是柔和的，但是在俄罗斯可能获得成功最保险的方法就是拥有正确的关系。

　　Vladimir Putin's Billionaire Boys Judo Club

　　The word judo translates as "gentle way," but you wouldn't know it from the meaty thuds that reverberated through the St. Petersburg gymnasium during Russia's national judo championships on Saturday, Feb. 19. Every now and then, the call to "Finish him!" would issue from the balcony packed with fans and ex-fighters, a crowd with plenty of mangled ears and twice-broken noses. As always, the co-sponsor of the event was the city's elite judo club Yawara-Neva, of which Prime Minister Vladimir Putin — a black belt — is the honorary president. He was unable to attend this year, the organizers explained apologetically, but everyone still seemed aware of his presence。

　　Since 2000, when Putin first became the President of Russia, Yawara-Neva has shot to incredible heights right alongside its general director Arkady Rotenberg, Putin's childhood sparring partner. This month, in the annual ranking of Russia's wealthiest put out by Finans magazine, Rotenberg jumped 17 spots from the previous year to officially join the list of Russia's billionaires. His fortune is now pegged at $1.75 billion, which seems like a lot for a man whose work before Putin took office was mostly confined to running average businesses and promoting judo. But for the members of their St. Petersburg clique, this isn't extraordinary. (See a picture of Vladimir Putin stretching during a judo training session。)

　　Most of Rotenberg's fortune has come through his deals with Russia's state-controlled natural-gas monopoly, Gazprom, which is headed by one of Putin's old friends from the St. Petersburg mayor's office. In 2008, Gazprom started selling Rotenberg its subsidiaries, in particular the ones that supply and construct pipelines, and then it started placing huge orders with these companies once they were in Rotenberg's control. In 2009 alone, Rotenberg's firm StroyGazMontazh won 19 of these tenders with Gazprom, sometimes at auctions in which it was the only bidder。

　　One of the main competitors of StroyGazMontazh for these Gazprom tenders is a company controlled by another one of Putin's judo buddies, Gennady Timchenko, the billionaire oil trader (worth $8.9 billion according to the Finans list) who also helped found Yawara-Neva in 1998. Both men deny that their friendship with Putin has helped them make their fortunes. "Acquaintance with a state official of such a high rank has never hurt anyone yet in our country, but it hasn't helped everyone," Rotenberg said in an interview last April with the daily Kommersant. "It is no guarantee." In 2008, Timchenko said reports of his links to Putin were "overblown" and insisted his career was not built on "favors or political connections."

　　For their part, the trainers and champions in Russia's judo circuit are quite proud about being close to Putin, Rotenberg and Gazprom, which was the other sponsor of Saturday's tournament. "We're all in it together," says the event's organizer, Vladimir Gladchenko, gesturing at the banner with the logos of Gazprom and Yawara-Neva that hung above the judo mats. "We have the political support, the financial support, so all we have to do is keep winning tournaments." And with a budget that seems practically limitless, that has come easy so far. Yawara-Neva (the name Yawara refers to a blunt weapon used in martial arts, while Neva is the river that runs through St. Petersburg) has won the European judo championship seven years running, more than any other team in history. (See judo in TIME's list of other Olympic sports。)

　　It is in many ways a gilded incarnation of the old Soviet judo club where Putin and a handful of his friends trained in the 1960s and '70s, forming a tight circle that seems to have more than its share of distinguished alumni. Besides Rotenberg and his younger brother Boris, who ranked just below his brother on the Finans rich list with a fortune of $1.75 billion, Putin's original judo set included Vasily Shestakov, another co-founder of Yawara-Neva. In 1999, when Putin was first appointed Prime Minister by then President Boris Yeltsin, Shestakov made a sudden break from his life as a judo trainer in St. Petersburg and went into politics, helping create the Unity Party that formed Putin's early base of support. In 2001, that party merged with two others to become United Russia, the political machine that now staffs virtually the entire bureaucracy and every elected chamber in the country. Today Shestakov is a deputy in the federal parliament for Fair Russia, another party loyal to the Kremlin. He is not on Russia's list of billionaires。

　　"But [Putin], as far as I know, replies to the requests of Arkady, Boris, Vasily and the other boys," said Putin's childhood trainer, Anatoly Rakhlin, in an interview with the Izvestia daily in 2007, referring to Shestakov and the Rotenberg brothers. "They are friends, and Putin's character has maintained that healthy camaraderie. He doesn't take the St. Petersburg boys to work with him because of their pretty eyes, but because he trusts people who are tried and true." (Comment on this story。)

　　The world of judo is apparently no exception in the ethos of access and influence that dominates Russia. "Clubs without that kind of political support are closing left and right," says Sergei Yudayev, a senior trainer for the Moscow team, as he looks out over the mats where one of his fighters just got creamed. "Yawara is milking its connections," he says bitterly. "Hell, in their place I would do the same." And who can blame him? It may not be the gentle way, but perhaps the surest way to success in Russia lies in having the right connections。

　　(时代周刊)

　　(斯年)