In today’s #vatnik soup I’ll introduce three oligarchs who are good friends with Putin. Their names are Arkady, Boris and Roman, and their surname is Rotenberg.

Arkady and Boris are brothers and Roman is Boris’ son. 1/11

Their wealth originates from the same source as most oligarchs and Putin’s friends-Arkady and Boris made a fortune through state-sponsored constructions projects, especially oil and gas pipelines.Arkady’s wealth is estimated to be around 3 billion USD and Boris’ 1, 2 bil. USD.2/11

Putin and Arkady have been friends since childhood: they were kids when they joined the same sambo club, and in the early 90’s they practiced judo several times a week. Later Arkady’s judo club was given a state-funded “training facility” with a yacht club, worth 180 mil USD.
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After Putin became the president, he put Arkady in control of a state-owned Rosspirtprom, that controlled 30% of Russia’s vodka market. Rotenbergs earned huge sums of money through inflated prices paid to them by Kremlin-controlled companies, such as Gazprom.

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In ’08, Rotenbergs formed Stroygazmontazh (SGM) that made them huge profits.They won the bid for building the Kerch bridge between Crimea and Russian mainland.The brothers were named in the Panama Papers, a leak that revealed offshore businesses of rich people around the world.5/11

Arkady and Boris were sanctioned by the US in 2014 and by EU in 2016. Italy has seized 30 million € worth of real estate from Arkady, including four villas and a hotel. Roman was sanctioned by the US in 2015.

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Rotenbergs own several sports clubs, including hockey club Dynamo Moscow, FC Dynamo Moscow and PFC Sochi. Roman is the head coach of hockey team SKA St. Petersburg.

Boris and Roman also have Finnish nationality, and together with Gennady Timchenko they’ve had various ...

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... business ventures in Finland.

In 2013, Rotenberg family and Timchenko bought 44, 98% of Hartwall Arena in Helsinki and 49% of Finnish hockey team Jokerit from Hjallis Harkimo (@hjallisharkimo), that moved to Russian hockey league KHL in 2014.

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In 2019 Jokerit was supposed to be bought back to Finnish investors with Finnish hockey legend Jari Kurri as the main owner, but the money came actually from now-sanctioned Russian oligarch Vladimir Potanin who is in good relations with both Rotenbergs and Timchenko.

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Roman has spent a lot of time in Finland partying with various celebrities, including Finnish hockey legend Teemu Selänne (@TeemuSel8nne). They tried to smoke out Harkimo from Jokerit for years, and Selänne was supposed to be his replacement.

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Of course, none of these shady deals driven by greed have been discussed afterwards, and all Finnish celebrities want people to forget their close connections with the Rotenbergs.

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