Two billionaire brothers with close ties to President Putin have been forced to sell their private jets after a Swiss bank stopped accepting their loan repayments for the aircraft over sanctions concerns.
Arkady and Boris Rotenberg have known Mr Putin since they were all teenagers in Leningrad, now known as St Petersburg, where they studied judo together. They gained almost all of their wealth from government contracts awarded after Mr Putin, 66, became president in 2000.
Boris Rotenberg’s Bombardier Global 5000 jet, worth $25 million, and Arkady Rotenberg’s Bombardier aircraft, worth $15 million, were put up for sale by Credit Suisse, according to Forbes Russia.
Both men were sanctioned by the United States in 2014 over their links to Mr Putin and had assets frozen. Arkady Rotenberg, 67, was also sanctioned by the European Union, a fate that Boris Rotenberg, 62, was able to avoid because he holds Finnish citizenship.
“After the sanctions were imposed, the bank unilaterally stopped accepting payments, and later sold the aircraft without notifying the borrower,” Boris Rotenberg’s spokesman said.
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Boris Rotenberg said that the unexpected loss of his private aircraft meant he was experiencing problems in arranging his working schedule.
The Rotenbergs are not the only Russian billionaires to be deprived of their luxury planes on the back of US sanctions. Oleg Deripaska, the aluminum tycoon, and Gennady Timchenko, who is reported to be close to Mr Putin, were last year forced to hand back their Gulfstream executive jets after European banks terminated their lease deals.
Western sanctions have had mixed consequences for Kremlin-linked tycoons. Russia’s 50 richest businessmen reportedly lost close to $12 billion last year after the United States imposed sanctions against Mr Putin’s business allies over alleged meddling in the 2016 American presidential election and other “malign” activities.
Mr Deripaska saw $1.3 billion wiped off his estimated fortune of $6.7 billion but Mr Timchenko’s net worth increased, however, by $3.8 billion, according to Forbes. His business partner, Leonid Mikhelson, the head of Russia’s Novatek gas producer, saw his wealth soar by $4 billion.
