美国国家公共电台 NPR Depth Of Russian Politician's Cultivation Of NRA Ties Revealed

 

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

Just how deep are the ties between Russia and the National Rifle Association? The story of one Russian official offers some insight. His name is Alexander Torshin. Back in 2015, an NRA delegation¹ traveled to Moscow and met him. Now NPR is reporting that his ties to the National Rifle Association go back years. He talked about the NRA regularly on social media, in Russian tweets that went unnoticed until NPR political reporter Tim Mak noticed them. And he's in our studios. Good morning, sir.

TIM MAK, BYLINE²: Hey. Good morning.

INSKEEP: Who is Torshin?

MAK: So Alexander Torshin - he's a former Russian senator. He serves as a deputy governor to the Bank of Russia. He's known to be a Putin ally. And when he was in the Russian Duma, he spent time on Russia's National Anti-Terrorism Committee. That's a powerful state body that includes the director of the FSB, which is Russia's internal security service, and the ministers of defense⁴ and foreign affairs. So I previously⁵ reported that he was a - and is - a paid lifetime member of the NRA. And over six years, he developed ties with leaders of the NRA and used them to get deeper into American politics. And we can see this because he documented all these efforts in real time. It was actually hiding in plain sight among 150,000 Russian-language tweets that NPR has translated.

INSKEEP: That's why people hadn't noticed it until now. They hadn't gone to the trouble of translating it. Hadn't - people didn't notice it in the United States, anyway. So what was he doing at NRA conventions, in his own words?

MAK: So he went to every NRA convention between 2012 and 2016. We hadn't known that he was going every single year. Over this time, he met with everyone who was a president at the NRA during this time.

INSKEEP: President of the NRA you're talking about.

MAK: Sorry, yes. President of the NRA. And he met with four presidents of the NRA during this time. He appears to have developed a pretty close relationship with David Keene, who is a former NRA president and the former president of the American Conservative Union. He even says that he met Donald Trump⁶ through the NRA at their convention in 2015. Now, the White House has previously denied this, but they didn't respond to NPR's request for comment on this story.

INSKEEP: Is there any description of that meeting with President Trump? Because I could imagine sitting in a private room, talking with someone. Or I could imagine being one of a thousand people who shakes Donald Trump's hand or tries to shake his hand.

MAK: Yeah. So the context of this is that Alexander Torshin was defending Donald Trump over the course of the later presidential campaign. And Torshin said, look. I know Donald Trump through the NRA. This is what he writes in Russian. I know Donald Trump through the NRA. He's a decent man.

INSKEEP: So he suggested himself that he had some kind of personal relationship with Trump. Now, you're reporting that he goes to the NRA. He's a lifetime member of the NRA, goes to these conventions. He talks about it regularly on social media. Is it possible that he was just a big fan of the United States Constitution's Second Amendment⁷?

MAK: It is possible, but there is the added interest of investigative bodies. And McClatchy reported last month that the FBI is investigating whether or not Alexander Torshin illegally directed any sort of money towards the NRA in order to help Donald Trump in the 2016 election.

INSKEEP: Oh. So perhaps what we're learning here, Tim Mak, is one of the reasons that he might be a person of interest to federal investigators⁸ because there is this public trail of his public interest and his public participation⁹ in the NRA. And that might lead to questions about whether there was something else going on a little more privately¹⁰.

MAK: Yeah. And members of both the House and Senate intelligence committees have said, hey, we want to get to the bottom of this particular question. And the Torshin element of it - the connections that we see in open source, public information raises a lot of eyebrows¹¹ amongst investigators.

INSKEEP: What do you make of the fact that this gentleman spent a bunch of time inside this organization that would cast itself as hyperpatriotic? And he's an official of Russia, a country that has not been very friendly with the United States. And he tweets at one point, I haven't heard one negative word about Russia in all my time in the United States.

MAK: Well, you know, it's interesting. He has spent many years traveling to the United States, has developed quite an affinity¹² both kind of personally as as a - you know, he's someone who really seems to enjoy guns. He spent many years traveling back and forth¹³ between Russia and the United States. One interesting anecdote¹⁴ is that in 2012, during the presidential election - you'll remember between Mitt³ Romney and President Obama - he traveled to the United States to Tennessee as an international election observer. So the United States sends observers abroad to watch their elections. And sometimes, foreigners send observers to watch American elections. But typically, it's not top Russian officials.

INSKEEP: So he's, like, hanging out at a polling place or something like that.

MAK: That's right. He stood in line. He took a picture of himself and put it on Twitter, said that he was standing¹⁵ outside a polling place in Tennessee. And very interestingly, he writes that the NRA - his membership in the NRA - was what helped facilitate his becoming an international election observer in the United States.

INSKEEP: So we have a picture of an ally of Vladimir Putin wanting to get really, really knowledgeable¹⁶ about American politics. Is that the bottom line of what your reporting reveals here?

MAK: I think the entirety of what I'm reporting here is this longtime effort to cultivate NRA ties and to leverage¹⁷ that to get deeper understanding, better connections, meetings in American politics.

INSKEEP: Tim, thanks very much for the reporting. Really appreciate it.

MAK: Thank you.

INSKEEP: That's NPR's Tim Mak.

1 delegation   

n.代表团；派遣

参考例句：

• The statement of our delegation was singularly appropriate to the occasion.我们代表团的声明非常适合时宜。
• We shall inform you of the date of the delegation's arrival.我们将把代表团到达的日期通知你。

2 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

3 mitt   

n.棒球手套，拳击手套，无指手套；vt.铐住，握手

参考例句：

• I gave him a baseball mitt for his birthday.为祝贺他的生日，我送给他一只棒球手套。
• Tom squeezed a mitt and a glove into the bag.汤姆把棒球手套和手套都塞进袋子里。

4 defense   

n.防御，保卫；[pl.]防务工事；辩护，答辩

参考例句：

• The accused has the right to defense.被告人有权获得辩护。
• The war has impacted the area with military and defense workers.战争使那个地区挤满了军队和防御工程人员。

5 previously   

adv.以前，先前（地）

参考例句：

• The bicycle tyre blew out at a previously damaged point.自行车胎在以前损坏过的地方又爆开了。
• Let me digress for a moment and explain what had happened previously.让我岔开一会儿，解释原先发生了什么。

6 trump   

n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭

参考例句：

• He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
• The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手，作为他的王牌。

7 amendment   

n.改正，修正，改善，修正案

参考例句：

• The amendment was rejected by 207 voters to 143.这项修正案以207票对143票被否决。
• The Opposition has tabled an amendment to the bill.反对党已经就该议案提交了一项修正条款。

8 investigators   

n.调查者，审查者( investigator的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• This memo could be the smoking gun that investigators have been looking for. 这份备忘录可能是调查人员一直在寻找的证据。
• The team consisted of six investigators and two secretaries. 这个团队由六个调查人员和两个秘书组成。 来自《简明英汉词典》

9 participation   

n.参与，参加，分享

参考例句：

• Some of the magic tricks called for audience participation.有些魔术要求有观众的参与。
• The scheme aims to encourage increased participation in sporting activities.这个方案旨在鼓励大众更多地参与体育活动。

10 privately   

adv.以私人的身份，悄悄地，私下地

参考例句：

• Some ministers admit privately that unemployment could continue to rise.一些部长私下承认失业率可能继续升高。
• The man privately admits that his motive is profits.那人私下承认他的动机是为了牟利。

11 eyebrows   

眉毛( eyebrow的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Eyebrows stop sweat from coming down into the eyes. 眉毛挡住汗水使其不能流进眼睛。
• His eyebrows project noticeably. 他的眉毛特别突出。

12 affinity   

n.亲和力，密切关系

参考例句：

• I felt a great affinity with the people of the Highlands.我被苏格兰高地人民深深地吸引。
• It's important that you share an affinity with your husband.和丈夫有共同的爱好是十分重要的。

13 forth   

adv.向前；向外，往外

参考例句：

• The wind moved the trees gently back and forth.风吹得树轻轻地来回摇晃。
• He gave forth a series of works in rapid succession.他很快连续发表了一系列的作品。

14 anecdote   

n.轶事，趣闻，短故事

参考例句：

• He departed from the text to tell an anecdote.他偏离课文讲起了一则轶事。
• It had never been more than a family anecdote.那不过是个家庭趣谈罢了。

15 standing   

n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的

参考例句：

• After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
• They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。

16 knowledgeable   

adj.知识渊博的；有见识的

参考例句：

• He's quite knowledgeable about the theatre.他对戏剧很有心得。
• He made some knowledgeable remarks at the meeting.他在会上的发言颇有见地。

17 leverage   

n.力量，影响；杠杆作用，杠杆的力量

参考例句：

• We'll have to use leverage to move this huge rock.我们不得不借助杠杆之力来移动这块巨石。
• He failed in the project because he could gain no leverage. 因为他没有影响力，他的计划失败了。