NEEDLESS RESCUE BARGAIN BINS EVOLUTIONARY WOES SCAMS TARGET IN SEARCH OF HOW ELEPHANTS’ TUSKS NEPAL TREKKERS ‘SHABBY CHIC’ BECAME A LIABILITY PAGE 7 | WORLD PAGE 18 | CULTURE PAGE 9 | SCIENCE

..

INTERNATIONAL EDITION | WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 2018 Of Trump As inflation and talk of A little fish with a big enemy inches up, laundering MOSCOW China feels Sergei Skripal betrayed Russia, and Putin never the pinch

forgets or forgives traitors BEIJING

BY MICHAEL SCHWIRTZ David Leonhardt AND ELLEN BARRY Higher prices could cause Sergei V. Skripal was a little fish. This is how British officials now de- problems for Beijing as it scribe Mr. Skripal, a Russian intelli- tries to support growth gence officer they recruited as a spy in OPINION the mid-1990s. When the Russians BY KEITH BRADSHER caught Mr. Skripal, they saw him that Donald Trump has a long history of way, too, granting him a reduced sen- Pork is up. Vegetables are up. Gasoline doing what he thinks is best for Donald tence. So did the Americans: The intelli- is up. Even the official numbers, usually Trump. If he needs to discard friends, gence chief who orchestrated his re- tame, are up. allies or wives along the way, so be it. lease to the West in 2010 had never Prices are rising in China — and that “I’m a greedy person,” he has ex- heard of him when he was included in a could complicate Beijing’s efforts to plained. spy swap with Moscow. prop up a slowing economy and navi- It’s important to keep this trait in But Mr. Skripal was significant in the gate President Trump’s trade war. mind when trying to make sense of the eyes of one man — Vladimir V. Putin, an An index of consumer prices rose in Russia story. Trump’s affinity for Rus- intelligence officer of the same age and August for the third consecutive month, sia, after all, is causing problems for training. Chinese government data showed this him. It has created tensions with his The two men had dedicated their lives week. The increases are not particularly own staff and his Republican allies in to an intelligence war between the Sovi- sharp, and Chinese economists point to Congress. Most voters now believe he et Union and the West. When that war a number of temporary factors pushing has something to hide. And the con- was suspended, both struggled to adapt. up prices, like floods that damaged stant talk of Russia One rose, and one fell. While Mr. Skri- crops and a swine flu epidemic that led How on television clearly pal was trying to reinvent himself, Mr. farmers to cull pigs. Bruce Ohr, enrages Trump. Putin and his allies, former intelligence Still, investors and the Chinese public He could make officers, were gathering together the alike are casting a wary eye on prices. the president’s his life easier if only strands of the old Soviet system. Gain- SERGEY PONOMAREV FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES Angus Tong, a 37-year-old Beijing res- latest Twitter he treated Vladimir ing power, Mr. Putin began settling Family photos of the former Russian spy Sergei V. Skripal with his daughter, Yulia, in the late 1980s and his wife, Lyudmila, in 1972. ident, said his landlord wanted to nearly target, fits Putin the way he scores, reserving special hatred for double the rent for his family’s $1,200-a- a suspicious treats most people those who had betrayed the intelligence month apartment. Rent already absorbs pattern who cause prob- tribe when it was most vulnerable. unit, the G.R.U., or Main Intelligence Di- It hardly mattered that Mr. Skripal “Death of a Salesman” than John le a third of his income and his wife’s, while of behavior lems — and cast Six months ago, Mr. Skripal was found rectorate, where Mr. Skripal once was a little fish. Carré. He lived in a shabby housing the family’s monthly food bills have ris- on Russia. Putin aside. Yet beside his daughter, Yulia, slumped on a worked. It is unclear if Mr. Putin played In the late 1990s, Sergei Skripal re- block in a field of identical housing en. Trump can’t bring bench in an English city, hallucinating a role in the poisoning of Mr. Skripal, turned from , where he was blocks, drove a rattletrap Niva and told To save money, “we try to cook every himself to do so. and foaming at the mouth. His poisoning who survived and has gone into hiding. posted undercover in the office of the endless stories about his days as a para- meal at home,” he said, adding, “I think This odd refusal led to a Cold War-style confrontation be- But dozens of interviews conducted in Russian military attaché. Russia was in trooper. most middle-income people feel the is arguably the biggest reason to be- tween Russia and the West, with both Britain, Russia, , , the disarray. Coal miners, soldiers and doc- One thing didn’t fit: At restaurants, he pressure from rising costs.” lieve that Putin really does have lever- sides expelling diplomats and wran- United States and the , tors had not been paid in months. Work- insisted on paying for everyone. “That age over Trump. Maybe it’s something gling over who had tried to kill him and as well as a review of Russian court doc- ers took control of a St. Petersburg nu- was something that set him apart,” Mr. shocking, like a sex tape or evidence of why. uments, show how their lives inter- clear power plant, threatening to shut it Ivanov said. “I don’t know where this campaign collusion by Trump himself. Last week, British officials offered sected at key moments. down unless they received their back came from.” In their crowd there were Or maybe it’s the scandal that’s been specifics, accusing Russia of sending In 2010, when Mr. Skripal and three pay. many other former Soviet spies, who staring us in the face all along: Illicit two hit men to smear Mr. Skripal’s front other convicted spies were released to Mr. Skripal was good fun, though, had devoted the first part of their life to financial dealings — money laundering door handle with a , an accu- the West, Mr. Putin had been watching happy in the company of other men. qualifying as intelligence officers. Now — between Trump’s business and sation vigorously denied by Moscow. from the sidelines with mounting fury. Oleg B. Ivanov, who worked with him in it all seemed pointless. Russia. British intelligence chiefs claim they Asked to comment on the freed spies, the Moscow regional governor’s office, “You have to understand, the Soviet The latest reason to be suspicious is have identified the men as members of Mr. Putin publicly daydreamed about recalled him as a man struggling to keep Union collapsed,” Mr. Ivanov said. “All Trump’s attacks on a formerly obscure the same Russian their death. up with changes in the country, more RUSSIA, PAGE 6 Justice Department official named Bruce Ohr. Trump has repeatedly criticized Ohr and called for him to be AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE — GETTY IMAGES fired. Ohr’s sin is that he appears to Prices of vegetables in China have have been marginally involved in climbed 21 percent since mid-July. inquiries into Trump’s Russian links. Taking a whack at a career changer But Ohr fits a larger pattern. In his highly respected three-decade career trait of a lonely middle-aged comedian Higher prices could cause problems in law enforcement, he has specialized Actress is trying to fight on tour, arrived last year. Over the sum- for Xi Jinping, the country’s leader. They in going after Russian organized crime. mer, Ms. Sevigny finished filming a com- would mean China’s leaders would have It just so happens that most of the her way out of pigeonhole plex third short, “White Echo,” which to be careful as they sought ways to bol- once-obscure bureaucrats whom with an arty horror film looks at five women in their 30s and ster slowing growth, lest their efforts Trump has tried to discredit also are whether they believe in their own power. drive prices up still further. The trade experts in some combination of Russia, BY BROOKS BARNES “Now I’m ready to direct a feature,” war with the United States could also organized crime and money launder- Ms. Sevigny said. “I know. I’m sure. It’s lead to higher prices for Chinese con- ing. Oh, gawd. Not another profile of Chloë where I hope I’m headed.” sumers and companies with tariffs rais- It’s true of Andrew McCabe (the Sevigny. She’s a cooler-than-thou fash- When we met last month in New York, ing the cost of imported goods. former deputy F.B.I. director whose ionista who also plays supporting roles Ms. Sevigny’s proposed rendezvous “During the coffee breaks and the firing Trump successfully lobbied for), in indie movies — the It Girl to end all It point was not a hipster hangout in conversations, the topic of inflation is Andrew Weissmann (the only official Girls. We get it. Brooklyn, her home in recent years, or a coming up,” said Tai Hui, the chief Asia working for Robert Mueller whom That was my reaction when someone favorite vintage store in Alphabet City, a markets strategist for J. P. Morgan Trump singles out publicly) and others. suggested an article about Ms. Sevigny, neighborhood where she used to crash Funds. “We’re starting to hear a lot more They are all Trump boogeymen — and whose latest film, “Lizzie,” a lesbian- with druggie friends. She asked to do the from investors. It’s just a question of the all among “the Kremlin’s biggest ad- tinged take on Lizzie Borden and the in- interview at her new West Village apart- severity.” versaries in the U.S. government,” as famous ax murders, arrives in theaters ment, which is still an uninhabitable For now, Chinese economists general- Natasha Bertrand wrote in The Atlan- this week. Hadn’t the same Chloë Sevi- construction zone, sawdust and all. ly say there is little cause for alarm. tic. Trump, she explained, seems to be gny story been rewritten for 23 years, “I’ve never lived west of Third Ave- “Disasters like the swine flu and disas- trying to rid the government of experts ever since she arrived on the scene with nue, and it feels very adult,” she said ters like the flood are not a very big im- in Russian organized crime. “Kids” and swept into Fashion Week? NATALIA MANTINI FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES with a giddy smile, as we sat on buckets pact on China as a whole and are not a I realize that this evidence is only There was nothing new to say. “Now I’m ready to direct a feature,” said Chloë Sevigny, whose project is about Lizzie of plaster and drank iced tea from a turning point,” said Li Xuesong, the dep- circumstantial and well short of proof. I was wrong. Borden and the storied ax murders. “I know. I’m sure. It’s where I hope I’m headed.” bougie shop down the block. uty director of the National Academy of But it’s one of many suspicious pat- Ms. Sevigny, it turns out, has begun a This was not the Chloë Sevigny I had Economic Strategy in Beijing. terns about Trump and Russia. When relatively radical career turn. Tired of been expecting. Based on the endless Historically, inflation has been a ma- LEONHARDT, PAGE 16 being defined more by her offscreen part. Set in 1892, the movie finds a rage- Ms. Sevigny has also spent the last magazine articles I had read about her jor political and economic issue in China, aura than by her acting — hello, she was filled Ms. Sevigny, 43, romancing Kris- two years training as a filmmaker. Her over the years, I envisioned someone a consequence of a hard-charging econ- The New York Times publishes opinion nominated for an Oscar and won a Gold- ten Stewart’s Irish housemaid and lit- directorial debut, “Kitty,” a short film who would stare at me with bored eyes omy, as well as previous bouts of run- from a wide range of perspectives in en Globe — Ms. Sevigny produced erally smashing the patriarchy (in the about a girl who turns into a cat, made a and pepper her sentences with refer- away lending by state banks. Both can hopes of promoting constructive debate “Lizzie” so that she could, for the first face, with an ax) in a series of scenes in- splash at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival. ences to avant-garde artists I was too set the stage for surging prices, and at about consequential questions. time in her 50-film career, play the lead volving full nudity. A second short, “Carmen,” an eerie por- LIZZIE, PAGE 2 CHINA, PAGE 13

NEWSSTAND PRICES Issue Number Experience our multimedia storytelling at nytimes.com. Great Britain £ 2.20 Kazakhstan US$ 3.50 Oman OMR 1.40 Serbia Din 280 Tunisia Din 5.200 No. 42,144 Greece € 2.80 Latvia € 4.50 Poland Zl 15 Slovakia € 3.50 Turkey TL 11 Andorra € 3.70 Cameroon CFA 2700 Egypt EGP 28.00 Hungary HUF 950 Lebanon LBP 5,000 Portugal € 3.50 Slovenia € 3.40 U.A.E. AED 14.00 Discover documentaries, interactive graphics, AR, VR and more. Antilles € 4.00 Canada CAN$ 5.50 Estonia € 3.50 Israel NIS 13.50 Luxembourg € 3.50 Qatar QR 12.00 Spain € 3.50 United States $ 4.00 Y(1J85IC*KKNPKP( +@!"!$!%!_ Austria € 3.50 Croatia KN 22.00 Finland € 3.50 Israel / Eilat NIS 11.50 € 3.40 Republic of Ireland ¤ 3.40 Sweden Skr 35 United States Military Bahrain BD 1.40 Cyprus € 3.20 France € 3.50 Italy € 3.50 Montenegro € 3.40 Reunion € 3.50 Switzerland CHF 4.80 (Europe) $ 2.00 Download the New York Times mobile app for news on the go. Belgium € 3.50 Czech Rep CZK 110 Gabon CFA 2700 Ivory Coast CFA 2700 Morocco MAD 30 Saudi Arabia SR 15.00 Syria US$ 3.00 Bos. & Herz. KM 5.50 Denmark Dkr 30 Germany € 3.50 Jordan JD 2.00 Norway Nkr 33 Senegal CFA 2700 The Netherlands € 3.50