U.S. Removes Sanctions on Karina Rotenberg, Wife of Close Putin Ally

On Wednesday, the U.S. government revoked sanctions against Karina Rotenberg, the spouse of billionaire Boris Rotenberg, a close ally of Vladimir Putin.

Karina Yurievna Rotenberg was removed from the Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) list which is maintained by the Office of Foreign Assets Control within the U.S. Treasury Department.

Documents that have surfaced suggest that Karina Rotenberg, who wed Boris Rotenberg in 2009, has held U.S. citizenship since at least 2013. She was placed on the U.S. sanctions list in March 2022.

Despite the sanctions imposed on her spouse by the European Union following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, she has continued to travel abroad.

Last summer, independent Russian media outlet SVTV reported that she shared videos on Instagram from a luxury resort in southeastern France, where she was filmed practicing Pilates in Roquebrune-Cap-Martin.

Karina Rotenberg is the head of the Moscow Equestrian Federation and, along with her husband, manages prestigious stables in Europe, as reported by the independent outlet Vyorstka. Data from the International Equestrian Federation (FEI) and the Russian Equestrian Federation (FKSR) indicate that the Rotenbergs possess at least 24 horses, some of which are valued at nearly 900,000 euros.

Prior to 2022, it was reported by investigative news platforms IStories and the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) that Karina Rotenberg provided financial assistance to her husband through loans from foreign branches of Russian banks.

Documents obtained by IStories and OCCRP reveal that an offshore firm linked to Boris Rotenberg’s former bodyguard made a deposit of 2 million euros in the Cyprus branch of Promsvyazbank, which subsequently extended a loan of the same amount to Karina Rotenberg, secured by that deposit.

Additionally, the documents show that Karina Rotenberg owns 50% of her husband’s Western real estate assets. She has a stake in a 30-hectare estate located in Mouans-Sartoux, around 50 kilometers from Monaco, which was valued at 17 million euros in 2014. The couple’s combined assets in Monaco and France are said to exceed 60 million euros.

On the same day, the U.S. government also broadened its sanctions list, adding several Russian individuals and entities, including Yuri Belyakov, Vyacheslav Vidanov, and the companies Edison, Kolibri Group, and Sky Frame. Additionally, sanctions were placed on the Russian-flagged bulk carrier AM Theseus.

In a separate move, the EU lifted sanctions on Dmitry Pumpyansky, the billionaire founder of the Pipe Metallurgical Company, along with sanctions against his wife and son, which had initially been imposed three years prior.