How an Ex-Goldman Banker Fought US Sanctions Over Russia — and Won
Titova was targeted despite quitting Russian lender’s board
Huge increase in the use of restrictions has raised questions
Elena Titova held top jobs in Moscow for Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and UBS in her almost three decades as an investment banker, then stuck with the Russian market even as the big US and European banks cut back.
Eight days after Vladimir Putin’s forces invaded Ukraine last year, she resigned from the state-run lender where she was a board member. Born to a Russian-Ukrainian family and educated partly in the US, she cut professional ties to the country where she’d made her career.

That didn’t stop the US from sanctioning her. She was put on the US list of “Specially Designated Nationals,” a roster of people subject to the strictest ostracism from the American-dominated financial system. The reason? She was “linked” to Bank Otkritie, which the US blacklisted right after the invasion, even though she’d quit the board. Foreign banks cut off access to her accounts, and she had trouble paying living expenses.

“It’s changed my life forever, for someone who worked for international banks and was trusted in the system,” she said.

Titova’s yearlong odyssey to clear her name is an example of the collateral damage from the explosion in the use of sanctions by the US and its allies in recent years as Russia has kept up its brutal war effort.

“Considering how many sanctions have been placed on Russia and Russian individuals and entities in response to their invasion of Ukraine, I think we can in the coming years definitely see a lot more people trying to get off these lists,”said Kim Donovan, a former US Treasury official and director of the Economic Statecraft Initiative at the Atlantic Council in Washington. “Sometimes through petitioning you can get off, but a lot of times you have to take legal action.”

Treasury said the State Department handles removal petitions for those like Titova sanctioned under its authority. A State Department spokesperson said it adjudicates petitions on a case-by-case basis and doesn’t comment on specific ones.