Boris Romanovich Rotenberg

Boris Romanovich Rotenberg (Russian: Ротенберг Борис Романович, born in Leningrad on 3 January 1957) is a Russian business man and oligarch. He is co-owner (with his brother Arkady Rotenberg) of the SGM (StroyGazMontazh) group, the largest construction company for gas pipelines and electrical power supply lines in Russia. He was listed by Forbes as Russia's 69th wealthiest person in 2016 with a net worth of $1.07 billion.[2] He is considered a close confidant of president Vladimir Putin.[3]

In this Eastern Slavic name, the patronymic is Romanovich and the family name is Rotenberg.
Boris Rotenberg
Boris Rotenberg
Born
Boris Romanovich Rotenberg

(1957-01-03) 3 January 1957
Leningrad, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union (now Saint Petersburg, Russia)
NationalityRussian
OccupationBusinessman
Known forCo-founder of SMP Bank,
Net worthUS$1.2 Billion (February 2021) [1]

Biography

Rotenberg was very involved in martial arts between 1968 and 1978, particularly judo. He trained alongside Vladimir Putin[3] and won several awards 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.[3] Mr. Rotenberg is a member of the St. Petersburg Connection, a powerful energy lobby under the leadership of 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.[3]

From July 2013[4] to 17 July 2015, Rotenberg was the president of FC Dynamo Moscow soccer club.[5] 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 football player of the FC Lokomotiv Moscow.[6][7] After leaving FC Dynamo Moscow, he bought another football club FC Dynamo Saint Petersburg, that club was eventually moved to Sochi under the name PFC Sochi and was promoted to the Russian Premier League for the 2019–20 season.

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 July 2014, the European union also blacklisted Boris Romanovich Rotenberg's company Giprotransmost for conducting the feasibility study of the construction of a bridge from Russia to the Autonomous Republic of Crimea.[8][9]

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.[10]

Rotenberg was named in the Panama Papers.[11]

Rotenberg also holds Finnish citizenship.[12]

His nephew, Igor Rotenberg (Russian: Ротенберг, Игорь Аркадьевич; born September 9, 1974) is Russian billionaire businessman.[13][14]

In January 2020 Finnish national broadcaster YLE reported that Rotenberg had lost a court case against four Finnish banks in Helsinki District Court. Rotenberg had complained that the banks did not grant him basic banking services and he was not able to make even small transfers using his Finnish accounts. Helsinki District Court resolved the lawsuit by deciding Rotenberg has no right to basic banking services because he does not permanently reside in European Economic Area. Rotenberg was sentenced to pay the four banks' court costs of 530 000 euros.[15]

Motorsport

SMP Bank has sponsored auto racing teams under the brand SMP Racing. Russian drivers like Mikhail Aleshin, Sergey Sirotkin and Vitaly Petrov have competed in Formula 1, Formula 2, the FIA World Endurance Championship, IndyCar Series and the European Le Mans Series.

Rotenberg also owns BR Engineering, a racecar constructor. The BR01 is an LMP2 car that debuted in 2015.

References
  1. Boris Rotenberg – Profile Forbes. Retrieved 1 February 2021.
  2. "#1694 Boris Rotenberg". Retrieved 3 April 2016.
  3. Lucian Kim (28 April 2010). "Putin's Judo Friend Says Premier Didn't Help Win Gazprom Deals". Bloomberg.com.
  4. "Boris Rotenberg replaced Solovyev on a post of the president of FC Dynamo". Wrestling.com.ua. 18 July 2013.
  5. Борис Ротенберг покидает пост президента (in Russian). FC Dynamo Moscow. 17 July 2015.
  6. Saul Pope (4 May 2015). "The Unusual Career of Boris Rotenberg". Futbolgrad.com.
  7. "Boris Rotenberg Jr, family friend of Vladimir Putin, has unexpected and mercurial rise to peak of Russian football". Telegraph.co.uk. 6 May 2015.
  8. Valentina Pop (30 July 2014). "EU blacklists three Putin 'cronies'". Euobserver.com.
  9. "RÈGLEMENT D'EXÉCUTION (UE) No 826/2014 DU CONSEIL du 30 juillet 2014". Eur-lex.europa.eu (in French). 30 July 2014.
  10. D Butrin, O Shestopal, S Dementyeva (2014). Visa and MasterCard withdraw sanctions against two Russian banks. Russia Beyond the Headlines. 24 March 2014.
  11. "Panama Papers: The Power Players". International Consortium of Investigative Journalists. Archived from the original on April 4, 2016.
  12. Kuittinen, Teppo (11 December 2014). "Suomalaisoligarkkien "karu" pakotearki: valtavia tilauksia Venäjän valtiolta". is.fi (in Finnish). Retrieved 7 March 2018.
  13. "Igor Rotenberg". Forbes. Retrieved October 26, 2018.
  14. "Кто есть кто: Ротенберг Игорь Аркадьевич" [Who Is Who: Rotenberg Igor Arkadyevich]. Delovoy Petersburg (in Russian). Retrieved October 26, 2018.
  15. "Boris Rotenberg hävisi kiistansa suomalaispankkien kanssa – joutuu maksamaan yli puoli miljoonaa pankkien oikeudenkäyntikuluja" (in Finnish). Retrieved March 21, 2020.
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