Being friends with the current Russian president since they were young and standing together in the judo ring is a good prerequisite for joining the ranks of the richest Russians. The brothers Arkadi and Boris Rotenberg, born in 1951 and 1957 respectively, are old judo friends of Putin; they have known him since their time together in St. Petersburg in the 1990s. Today the Rotenbergs are multi-billionaires. In Russia they are often called the “kings of state contracts”.