Jean-Pierre Won't Say Why Biden Hasn't Sanctioned Russian Billionaires Tied to Hunter (March 6, 2023)

A year into Russia’s war on Ukraine, a reporter asked the White House why President Biden had not sanctioned two Russian billionaires, and whether the president had a conflict of interest because of his son. “I’m just not speaking to anything that’s related to his son from here,” press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said [1].

The video above shows the March 6, 2023, exchange. Quotes are from the official White House transcript [1]. One of the two billionaires, Yelena Baturina, would become a central figure in House Republicans’ impeachment case against Biden [2].

The reporter laid it out in one question. “Regarding Russia’s sanctions, I’m wondering if you could share the reason why President Biden hasn’t sanctioned the Russian billionaires Vladimir Yevtushenkov and Yelena Baturina. How — how is he handling the conflict of interest there, given his son was a business associate of these two people? And can you confirm that, as sitting Vice President, he dined with Baturina in Georgetown?” [1]

“I’m just not speaking to anything that’s related to his son from here,” Jean-Pierre answered. “If you want to have — if you want to ask a question about Hunter Biden specifically, I would refer you to his family” [1].

“And as it relates to any sanctions, I’m not speaking to individual — individual persons that are from Russia,” she said, and called on the next reporter [1].

Who Is Yelena Baturina?

Baturina’s husband, Yuri Luzhkov, was the longtime mayor of Moscow. The House committees’ 2024 impeachment report noted that the U.S. ambassador to Russia at the time, John Beyrle, had accused Luzhkov of heading a “pyramid of corruption,” and quoted a contemporaneous report that after Luzhkov took office, his wife “became Russia’s wealthiest woman, amassing a fortune put at $1.8 [billion]” [2].

According to the report:

The money: On Feb. 14, 2014, Baturina transferred $3.5 million to Rosemont Seneca Thornton, a firm associated with Hunter Biden. About $2.75 million was later moved to the Rosemont Seneca Bohai account that Hunter Biden and his partner Devon Archer used to receive other foreign wire transfers. The report cites bank records and a 2020 staff report of the Senate Homeland Security and Finance committees [2].
The timing: The wire came “ten days after attending the dinner with Vice President Biden,” the report says [2].
The services: Citing Archer, the report says Hunter Biden “did not provide services to Ms. Baturina to merit this payment prior to the February 2014 dinner that the Vice President attended” [2].

The Georgetown Dinner and the Phone Call

The answer to the reporter’s last question, according to House investigators, was yes. Archer testified that then-Vice President Biden attended a spring 2014 dinner for Hunter Biden’s birthday at Café Milano in Washington, along with Baturina and two guests from Kazakhstan, Kenes Rakishev and Karim Massimov [2].

Months later, according to testimony from Hunter Biden’s former associate Jason Galanis, Hunter put his father on speakerphone with Baturina at a May 4, 2014, gathering at a Brooklyn restaurant. The committees’ report says the vice president told her, “you be good to my boy” [2].

“Devon Archer’s testimony today confirms Joe Biden lied to the American people when he said he had no knowledge about his son’s business dealings and was not involved,” House Oversight Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., said after Archer’s interview in July 2023. “Joe Biden was ‘the brand’ that his son sold around the world to enrich the Biden family” [4].

”The Brand”

Archer’s testimony gave Republicans their favorite phrase. Asked by committee counsel whether “the brand” meant the Biden family, Archer said, “Correct.” When Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., asked whether he meant Joe Biden, Archer said: “Yeah, that’s fair to say. Listen, I think it’s — I don’t think about it as, you know, Joe directly, but it’s fair. That’s fair to say. Obviously, that brought the most value to the brand” [3].

Democrats pushed back in the same interview. Archer offered his opinion that Burisma “would have gone out of business if it didn’t have the brand attached to it,” but added, “I have no basis for any — never heard any conversations.” Rep. Dan Goldman, D-N.Y., pressed him that this was “different than Joe Biden’s action,” and Archer agreed: “Right” [3].

The White House Line

The White House never engaged on the substance. By July 2023, asked whether the president still stood by his claim that he had never even spoken to his son about his business, Jean-Pierre said: “The answer remains the same: The President ha- — was never in business with his son. I just don’t have anything else to add” [5].

The Sanctions Record

As of Oct. 25, 2026, the Treasury Department’s list of Specially Designated Nationals, the main U.S. sanctions list, does not name either Yelena Baturina or Vladimir Yevtushenkov as an individual, according to HYGO News’ review of the published data file [6].

By the Numbers

$3.5 million: Baturina’s Feb. 14, 2014, transfer to Rosemont Seneca Thornton [2].
$2.75 million: the portion later moved to the Rosemont Seneca Bohai account [2].
10 days: the gap between the dinner with the vice president and the wire, according to the House report [2].
$1.8 billion: the fortune attributed to Baturina in reporting quoted by the House report [2].
0: entries for Baturina or Yevtushenkov by name on Treasury’s current sanctions list [6].

What Happened Next

Archer talked. Archer sat for a transcribed interview with the House Oversight Committee on July 31, 2023. Comer’s committee released the transcript three days later, saying Archer confirmed then-Vice President Biden “was ‘the brand’ that his son sold around the world” [3][4].

The impeachment report. The Oversight, Judiciary and Ways and Means committees made the Baturina dinner, the $3.5 million wire and the “you be good to my boy” call part of their August 2024 report, which argued that Biden “participated in a conspiracy to monetize his office of public trust to enrich his family” [2].

The pardon. On Dec. 1, 2024, Biden pardoned his son for any offenses he “committed or may have committed or taken part in during the period from January 1, 2014 through December 1, 2024,” a window that covers the Baturina payment [7]. HYGO News covers that arc in its page on the House GOP probes.

For more of Jean-Pierre’s answers checked against the record, see the Karine Jean-Pierre record page.

”Not Speaking to Anything That’s Related to His Son”