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STATE DEPARTMENT: LIFTING SANCTIONS ON PUTIN ALLY’S WIFE 'INDEPENDENT' OF PEACE TALKS
By Rob Waldeck
On Wednesday, the U.S. lifted sanctions against Karina Rotenberg, the wife of Boris Rotenberg, a close confidant of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Boris Rotenberg and his brother, Igor Rotenberg, were childhood friends of the Russian President.
The delisting is a significant concession to one of Putin’s closest personal allies at a time when the Trump administration is attempting to broker a peace between the Putin regime and Ukraine.
No reason was given by the Treasury Department for the move, which Pravda described as “unexpected.” The Treasury Department did not respond to a request for comment from The (b)(7)(D). Reached for comment, a State Department spokesperson, speaking on background, told The (b)(7)(D) that the State Department was “unable to comment on the specifics of this delisting.” Despite being unable to comment on the specifics of the matter, the spokesperson proactively decoupled the lifting of sanctions from Trump’s efforts to force a peace in the Russo-Ukrainian War, stating “this action is independent from our ongoing efforts to advance a negotiated end to the war.” The State Department spokesperson added that “our sanctions remain broadly in place, and we do not have additional announcements at this time.”
The Rotenbergs became billionaires after Putin rose to power in the late 1990s. The brothers invested in banking, construction, and other ventures and obtained large contracts from Russia’s majority state-owned natural gas company Gazprom and for the Sochi Olympics.
But Russia’s 2014 invasion of Ukraine resulted in U.S. sanctions being placed on both Arkady and Boris Rotenberg. But Boris Rotenberg had a U.S. citizen to help him evade sanctions, his wife. In 1993, Karina Rotenberg, then Karina Gapchuk, had moved to the U.S. with her parents and applied for asylum in the U.S. Eventually, Karina Rotenberg became a U.S. citizen.
Between 2014 and Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Karina Rotenberg’s status as a U.S. citizen proved useful to Boris Rotenberg. According to Forbes, Karina played “a key role in her husband’s attempts to shift his assets in an effort to skirt sanctions.” Despite this, the U.S. did not place Karina on its Russia-related sanctions list until March 3, 2022, after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Karina Rotenberg was also placed on the United Kingdom’s Russia sanctions list on March 15, 2022. At press time, Karina Rotenberg remained on the UK Sanctions List.