Russian oligarchs who are linked to Putin sold the stadium in Helsinki

Russian businessmen with Finnish citizenship Gennady Timchenko and Roman Rotenberg have sold the Helsinki Arena stadium to a group of Finnish investors.

The deal is estimated at around 60 million euros. The money for the sale of the arena will go to special accounts under the control of the authorities and will be kept there while sanctions are in place against the businessmen, the newspaper said. According to the publication, the scheme was supported by Prime Minister Petteri Orpo.

It is noted that a group of Finnish investors agreed to buy the Arena Helsinki. The Finnish buyers, united in the company Trevian Asset Management Ltd, headed by Heikki Viitikko, the former owner of the hockey club, said it took them two years to agree on a deal with lawyers who worked for the Russian owners and yesterday the documents were signed.

Reima Sodervall, Trevian's executive director, said that due to sanctions, the deal would still require an exceptional EU clearance. When asked how much was paid, Sodervall said that “we will pay the market price.”

Gennady Timchenko, an old acquaintance of Russian President Vladimir Putin, has been under US sanctions since 2014, and the EU has added him to its sanctions lists in 2022. Roman Rotenberg is not subject to EU sanctions, but the Finnish authorities have speculated that the arena may be controlled through him by the businessman's father, President Putin's friend Boris Rotenberg. He was sanctioned by the US and EU after the 2022 invasion.

“The Helsinki Arena, a large concert venue that seats up to 15,000 people and was formerly a major hockey arena, has been idle for two years after Russian investors were sanctioned following Moscow's invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

Source: Reuters