Putin's friends sell assets because of sanctions

Russian businessmen Boris and Arkady Rotenberg, who are friends of President Vladimir Putin, recently sold part of their assets to their sons, the Wall Street Journal reported.

In particular, this is a company that is engaged in drilling operations under a contract with Gazprom and the fashionable hotel Langvik Congress Wellness in Finland.

The newspaper writes that the Rotenberg brothers made deals after they were included in the US sanctions list last March. These are just some examples of sales of assets by persons involved in the sanctions list.

“Such sales further complicate the situation for American companies, which, in an effort to comply with the sanctions, are forced to follow a rather complex set of rules that apply to companies in Russia and the Crimea, whose activities are often not transparent,” the newspaper notes.

According to the US Treasury Department, 57 legal entities and 74 individuals from Russia and Ukraine have been included in the American "black list" since March last year. According to the Wall Street Journal, based on information compiled by the Dow Jones Risk & Compliance, several have already sold their assets.

The U.S. government is not giving companies extensive guidance on whether they should do business with firms that were until recently controlled by sanctions, said Judith Lee, a partner at law firm Gibson Dunn & Crutcher.

Last August, the US Treasury Department recommended that Americans and American companies "exercise caution" when considering business with a company in which the blacklist is less than 50 percent, according to Wall Street Journal.

But the “Russia” bank included in the “black list” last year reduced its share in the insurance company SOGAZ. According to Dow Jones, the Russian Bank in March reduced its stake, which it controlled through the then subsidiary Abros from 51 to 48,5 percent. In the same month, the bank "Russia" was included in the sanctions list.