Boris Rotenberg: Judo, SMP Bank, FC Sochi and the Sanctions Against Him

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Sanctions status — checked 18 October 2026

Listed by: US (OFAC SDN) · UK (OFSI) · EU

This person appears on the sanctions lists named above. Other countries are covered in the sanctions section below. Date of birth used for identification: 1957-01-03. Checked against the OFAC SDN list, the UK OFSI consolidated list and the EU consolidated list. Sanctions lists change without notice — verify against the primary source before relying on this.

Current figure: Forbes puts Boris Rotenberg’s net worth at $1.3 billion as of 18 October 2026 (Forbes profile). Estimates are revised continuously and Forbes and Bloomberg frequently disagree.

Boris Rotenberg is a Russian businessman and sports official, and the younger brother of Arkady Rotenberg. A former judo coach, he co-founded SMP Bank with his brother in 2001 and became a co-owner of the pipeline builder Stroygazmontazh (SGM). Today he owns the football club FC Sochi and heads the Russian Automobile Federation. He has held Finnish as well as Russian citizenship since the early 2000s. The United States sanctioned him in 2014; the United Kingdom, the European Union, Switzerland and others followed in 2022.

  • Born: 3 January 1957 in Leningrad, now St Petersburg (EU Implementing Regulation 2022/581, RIA Novosti)
  • Education: Lesgaft Institute of Physical Culture, Leningrad (1978)
  • Known for: co-founder of SMP Bank, co-owner of SGM, owner of FC Sochi, president of the Russian Automobile Federation
  • Sanctions as of October 2026: United States (since 20 March 2014), Canada (since 28 April 2014), Australia (since 19 June 2014), United Kingdom (since 22 February 2022), New Zealand (since 18 March 2022), European Union (since 8 April 2022), Switzerland (since 13 April 2022), Ukraine (since 19 October 2022)

Early life and judo

Rotenberg was born on 3 January 1957 in Leningrad (EU Implementing Regulation 2022/581, RIA Novosti, Delovoy Peterburg). The US, EU, Canadian, Swiss, Ukrainian and New Zealand sanctions lists give the same date; the UK list shows 01/03/1957 (UK sanctions list). In 1968 he joined the sambo section in which his elder brother Arkady and Vladimir Putin were already training. He became a master of sport in judo in 1974 and in sambo in 1980, and graduated from the Lesgaft Institute of Physical Culture in Leningrad in 1978 (RIA Novosti, Forbes Russia, 8 October 2020, Forbes). Finland’s public broadcaster Yle and the investigative network OCCRP likewise report that he met Putin as a youth in a Leningrad judo club; Reuters has described both brothers as longtime friends of Putin (Yle, 27 February 2023, OCCRP, 20 June 2023, Reuters via The Moscow Times, 13 January 2020).

From 1992 he worked as a coach at the judo club Chikara in Helsinki and returned to St Petersburg in 1998 (RIA Novosti, Forbes Russia). He obtained Finnish citizenship in the early 2000s (Yle, The Moscow Times, 18 December 2025). From 2001 he headed the martial arts society Otechestvo, which promotes judo and sambo for young people (RIA Novosti, Forbes Russia). Forbes lists him as vice-president of the Russian Judo Federation (Forbes, updated 10 March 2026).

SMP Bank, SGM and Gazprom Drilling

In 2001 Boris and Arkady Rotenberg founded SMP Bank (Severny Morskoy Put), in which they later held equal stakes (RIA Novosti, Interfax, 15 August 2014). At the end of December 2022 they sold the bank to the state-owned Promsvyazbank (Interfax, 30 December 2022, Forbes Russia, 10 April 2023).

In 2008 the brothers bought five construction subsidiaries that Gazprom sold at auction and combined them into Stroygazmontazh (SGM). In 2014, according to the SPARK-Interfax database, Arkady owned 83 percent of SGM and Boris 17 percent (RIA Novosti, Interfax, 15 August 2014). Reports on the sale of SGM in 2019 name only Arkady as the seller (Meduza, 7 November 2019). Boris also held 16.29 percent of the drilling contractor Gazprom Burenie (Gazprom Drilling); in February 2018 the stake moved from his personal ownership into a closed-end investment fund (Kommersant, 2 August 2018, Interfax, 2 August 2018).

Forbes writes that in recent years he has sold almost all of his assets. In 2023 Forbes Russia described him as better known as a sports official and the owner of FC Sochi, with a remaining stake in the developer GVSU Tsentr (Forbes, Forbes Russia, 10 April 2023).

Football, motorsport and Finland

From July 2013 to July 2015 Rotenberg was president of the football club Dynamo Moscow (RIA Novosti, 17 July 2013, Kommersant, 17 July 2015). FC Sochi was founded on 4 July 2018 with him as owner (RBC Sport, 22 February 2022, Forbes Russia). As its president he said in June 2026 that the club, which finished 16th in the Premier League in 2025/26, aimed to return to the top division (Sport-Express, 3 June 2026). He founded the racing programme SMP Racing, and on 18 May 2024 he was elected president of the Russian Automobile Federation until 2028 (Match TV, 18 May 2024, Autosport.com.ru, 13 August 2026).

In 2013 a company owned in equal parts by the Rotenberg brothers and Gennady Timchenko bought Hartwall Arena in Helsinki, home of the ice hockey club Jokerit (RIA Novosti). In October 2014 the brothers sold their shares in the arena and the club to Boris’s son Roman (The Moscow Times, 10 October 2014). In January 2020 the Helsinki District Court dismissed his lawsuit against four Nordic banks that had refused him banking services and ordered him to pay about €530,000 of the banks’ legal costs (Reuters via The Moscow Times, 13 January 2020). In 2022, after the EU listing, Finnish authorities seized two of his villas, and in December 2025 a villa in Hanko was seized over unpaid property taxes; his lawyer said the matter was under review (Yle, 27 February 2023, The Moscow Times, citing Yle, 18 December 2025).

Sanctions

CountryListedStatus in October 2026
United States20 March 2014Listed (OFAC SDN list)
Canada28 April 2014Listed
Australia19 June 2014Listed (Australian consolidated list); listed afresh under the Russia criteria in June 2023
United Kingdom22 February 2022Listed
New Zealand18 March 2022Listed
European Union8 April 2022Listed; the measures run until 22 September 2029 unless lifted earlier
Switzerland13 April 2022Listed
Ukraine19 October 2022Listed (Decree 727/2022)

The US Treasury sanctioned Boris and Arkady Rotenberg on 20 March 2014, together with Gennady Timchenko, Yuri Kovalchuk and Bank Rossiya, for acting on behalf of or supporting a senior Russian official. It stated that the brothers “have provided support to Putin’s pet projects by receiving and executing high price contracts for the Sochi Olympic Games and state-controlled Gazprom” (US Treasury, 20 March 2014). In March 2022 his entry was extended to the Russia sanctions programme under Executive Order 14024 (OFAC, 3 March 2022). Canada listed him in April 2014 and Australia on 19 June 2014; Australia declared the listing to continue in 2017 and 2020 and in June 2023 listed him afresh under its Russia criteria; its consolidated list of 16 October 2026 still includes him (Canada’s consolidated list, Ukraine List 2014, Amendment List 2017, Continuing Effect Declaration 2020 (No 1), Amendment (No. 7) Instrument 2023, Australian Sanctions Consolidated List, 16 October 2026).

The United Kingdom listed him on 22 February 2022 as one of three very wealthy individuals in its first round of sanctions after Russia recognised the breakaway regions of Luhansk and Donetsk. Its statement of reasons describes him as “a prominent Russian businessman with close personal ties to Russian President, Vladimir Putin” and as a major shareholder and board member of SMP Bank (UK sanctions list, CNBC, 22 February 2022). The EU listed him on 8 April 2022. Its reasons state: “The Rotenbergs are closely associated with President Vladimir Putin.” The EU also names him as a board member of SMP Bank and a major shareholder of Gazprom Drilling (EU Implementing Regulation 2022/581). Both texts still describe him this way, although SMP Bank was sold in 2022 and his Gazprom Drilling stake was moved into a fund in 2018; in March 2025 the EU dropped both companies from his list of associated entities (EU Implementing Regulation 2025/527). In September 2026 the EU extended its measures until 22 September 2029 without changing his entry (EU Decision 2026/2161).

Switzerland followed on 13 April 2022 with the EU’s reasons, and New Zealand in March 2022 (Swiss sanctions list, New Zealand Russia Sanctions Register). Ukraine listed him on 19 October 2022 (annex to Decree 727/2022). His wife Karina and his sons Roman and Boris are also sanctioned by the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada (UK sanctions list, OFAC, Canada). We found no court challenge by Boris Rotenberg against his listings. We checked the US, UK and Canadian lists as of 8 October 2026, the Swiss list as of 5 October 2026, Australia’s consolidated list as of 16 October 2026 and the EU list as of its review of 22 September 2026.

About this profile

This profile was rewritten in October 2026. The 2022 version claimed that Rotenberg helped Putin get elected, was rewarded with positions in the Russian government, headed the oil company Rosneft and chaired the board of Russian Railways. It also said that he owns the oil producer Surgutneftegaz and the hockey club HC Sochi, bought a majority stake in Bank Rossiya in 2013, studied metallurgy in Moscow, founded SGM in 2000 and sat on the Russian Olympic Committee. We found no source for any of these statements; several are contradicted by the sources above. The descriptions of cars, a house in Geneva and paintings by Picasso and Monet had no source either. All of this has been removed. The net worth figure in the box at the top of this page comes from Forbes and carries its date.

Sources

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