U.S. Lifts Sanctions on Former Sberbank Finance Chief Alexandra Buriko

BY COMFORT OGBONNA

The United States on Tuesday lifted sanctions on Alexandra Buriko, the former chief financial officer of Russia’s state-owned Sberbank, according to information published on the U.S. Treasury Department’s website. The decision marks a rare reversal in a sanctions regime imposed in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and follows months of legal and administrative review.

Buriko had been among a group of senior executives and board members who stepped down from Sberbank shortly after the bank was targeted by Western sanctions in 2022. Those measures were introduced after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, triggering sweeping financial and economic penalties against Russian institutions and individuals seen as supporting the country’s war effort.

A U.S. official said Buriko demonstrated that she had fully separated from Sberbank and that the circumstances that initially led to her designation by the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control no longer applied. According to the official, the decision to remove her from the sanctions list followed a formal petition for reconsideration and was handled through the Treasury Department’s standard administrative process.

The official emphasized that the effectiveness of U.S. sanctions policy lies not only in the government’s authority to designate individuals and entities, but also in its willingness to lift restrictions when legal standards are met. Removing sanctions in appropriate cases, the official said, reinforces the credibility and integrity of the sanctions framework.

Buriko was sanctioned in May 2022 as part of a broader action aimed at what the Treasury Department described at the time as individuals and entities critical to Russia’s ability to wage war against Ukraine. The move included sanctions on eight current and former senior executives of Sberbank, Russia’s largest lender and a key pillar of the country’s financial system.

Sberbank itself had already been placed under U.S. sanctions in April 2022, a few months after Russia began its invasion of Ukraine in February of that year. The restrictions were intended to isolate Russia from the global financial system and limit its capacity to finance the war.

In December 2024, Buriko filed a lawsuit against the Treasury Department in federal court in Washington, arguing that she had severed all ties with Sberbank within days of the sanctions being imposed and that her continued designation was unlawful. That case remains pending, although both Buriko and the U.S. government have stated in court filings this year that they were engaged in negotiations to resolve the dispute.

The lifting of sanctions on Buriko comes amid ongoing scrutiny of how sanctions are applied and reviewed, as well as continued diplomatic and legal efforts surrounding individuals previously linked to sanctioned Russian institutions.