Boris Romanovich Rotenberg
Boris Romanovich Rotenberg (Russian: Ротенберг Борис Романович, born 3 January 1957) is a Russian business man and oligarch. He is co-owner (with his brother Arkady Rotenberg) of the SGM (Storygazmantazh) group, the largest construction company for gas pipelines and electrical power supply lines in Russia. He was listed by Forbes as Russia's 100th wealthiest person in 2010. He is considered a close confidant of president Vladimir Putin.
Biography
Born in Leningrad, Rotenberg was very much involved in the martial arts between 1968 and 1978,, particularly judo and trained alongside Vladimir Putin. He won several awards in this sport for the Soviet Union. In 1992, he became a professional judo trainer in Helsinki. In 1998, he returned to St. Petersburg.
In 2001, he and his brother founded the SMP bank, which operates in 40 Russian cities with over 100 branches, more than half of them in the Moscow area. SMP oversees the operation of more than 900 ATM-machines.
Based on his friendship with Vladimir Putin, his company became closely aligned with Gazprom, one of the largest natural gas producer in the world. Mr. Rotenberg is a member of the St. Petersburg Connection, a powerful energy lobby under the leadership of Mr. Putin.
He was involved in 20 construction projects for the Sochi Winter Olympics worth 5 billion Euro. The largest site was the coastal highway to Adler, where the Olympic Park was constructed for the numerous sport arenas.
From 2013 to 17 July 2015, Rotenberg was the president of FC Dynamo Moscow soccer club.[1] He is also the president of the Russian Judo federation. Mr. Rotenberg's two older sons are Roman Rotenberg, chief of marketing for the ice hockey club SKA St. Petersburg and Boris Rotenberg, a soccer player for the FC Dynamo Moscow team. After leaving Dynamo Moscow, he bought another soccer club FC Dynamo Saint Petersburg.
As a result of the 2014 Crimean crisis, the federal government of the United States under Barack Obama blacklisted the Rotenberg brothers and other close friends of the Russian president, including Sergei Ivanov and Gennadi Timchenko.
On 27 March 2014, both Visa and Mastercard executed the boycott of SMP Bank, Investcapitalbank and Investitsionny Soyuz (Investment Union) bank. However, just a few days later, it was announced that the institutions do not meet the criteria under which the U.S. Treasury introduces economic sanctions.[2]
References
- ↑ Борис Ротенберг покидает пост президента (in Russian). FC Dynamo Moscow. 17 July 2015.
- ↑ D Butrin, O Shestopal, S Dementyeva (2014). Visa and MasterCard withdraw sanctions against two Russian banks. Russia Beyond the Headlines. 24 March 2014.
External links
- Boris Rotenberg, Forbes Magazine
- Oliver Bilger: Krim-Krise, Die Angst vor dem Wirtschaftskrieg wächst, Die Zeit, 21 March 2014.