Russian billionaire , businessman Boris Rotenberg (L) listens to his wife Karina Rotenberg (R) during the awarding ceremony at the 2017 Formula 1 Russian Grand Prix in Sochi , Russia, April, 30, 2017.
Mikhail Svetlov | Getty Images News | Getty Images
The Trump administration lifted economic sanctions on the wife of a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin this week, even as it imposed sanctions on six other Russian individuals and entities.
Karina Rotenberg was removed as a sanctioned person on Tuesday by the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control. The official government notice of Rotenberg’s removal as a sanctioned person did not provide a reason.
CNBC asked officials at the White House and Treasury Department several times over two days what prompted the decision to lift the sanctions on Rotenberg. None of them replied.
Rotenberg, a 46-year-old Russian-born dual citizen of the United States, was placed on OFAC’s specially designated nationals list in March 2022 along with her billionaire oligarch husband, Boris Rotenberg, and their sons, Roman and Boris. The action came weeks after Russia invaded Ukraine.
It is rare for an American citizen to be placed on a U.S. sanctions list.
The elder Boris Rotenberg’s brother, Arkady, and his children were also put under the so-called full blocking sanctions at the same time.
Boris and Arkady are childhood friends of Putin.
The White House, in announcing those sanctions in March 2022 under then-President Joe Biden, said, “Today, the United States, in coordination with Allies and partners, is targeting additional Russian elites and family members who continue supporting President Putin despite his brutal invasion of Ukraine.”
“These individuals have enriched themselves at the expense of the Russian people, and some have elevated their family members into high-ranking positions,” the White House said then.
“Others sit atop Russia’s largest companies and are responsible for providing the resources necessary to support Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. These individuals and their family members will be cut off from the U.S. financial system, their assets in the United States will be frozen and their property will be blocked from use.”
Former world chess champion Garry Kasparov scoffed at news that Karina Rotenberg has been removed from the sanctions list.
“Tariffs on allies, lifting sanctions on enemies,” tweeted Kasparov, who is a critic of Putin’s regime.
OFAC earlier sanctioned Boris and Arkady Rotenbery, in March 2014, along with what the office called other “members of the Russian leadership’s inner circle.”
“Arkady Rotenberg and Boris Rotenberg have provided support to Putin’s pet projects by receiving and executing high price contracts for the Sochi Olympic Games and state-controlled Gazprom,” OFAC said in its announcement at that time.
“They have made billions of dollars in contracts for Gazprom and the Sochi Winter Olympics awarded to them by Putin,” OFAC said. “Both brothers have amassed enormous amounts of wealth during the years of Putin’s rule in Russia.”
“The Rotenberg brothers received approximately $7 billion in contracts for the Sochi Olympic Games and their personal wealth has increased by $2.5 billion in the last two years alone,” OFAC said.
The Rotenberg brothers were the subject of an investigative reporting series in June 2023 dubbed “The Rotenberg Files,” which was based on “a new leak 50,000 emails and documents from a Russian management firm that worked for the brothers,” according to a site for the series maintained by the Organized Crime and Corruption and Reporting Project.