Boris Romanovich Rotenberg the Soviet Union. In 1992, he became a professional judo trainer in Helsinki. In 1998, he returned to St. Petersburg. In 2001, he and his brother founded the SMP bank, which operates in 40 Russian cities with over 100 branches, more than half of them in the Moscow area. SMP oversees the operation of more than 900 ATM-machines. Based on his friendship with Vladimir Putin, his company became closely aligned with Gazprom. Mr. Rotenberg is a member of the St. Petersburg Connection, a powerful energy lobby under the leadership of Mr. Putin. He was involved in 20 construction projects for
Sparring some schools, permission to begin sparring is granted upon entry. The rationale for this decision is that students must learn how to deal with a fast, powerful, and determined attacker. In other schools, students may be required to wait a few months, for safety reasons, because they must first build the skills they would ideally employ in their sparring practice. Sparring is normally distinct from fights in competition, the goal of sparring normally being the education of the participants. The educational role of sparring is a matter of some debate. In any sparring match, precautions of some sort must be