‘I touched a nerve,’ says schoolboy targeted by Putin for exposing illegal cryptocurrency deals

Robert Mendick Chief Reporter. 

Camilla Turner Sunday Political Editor

Published 04 June 2026

A British schoolboy has become the first child sanctioned by the Kremlin.

Alexander Browder, 17, has been placed on a banned list in retaliation for his “unfriendly actions” in exposing Russian money laundering.

The sixth form student has compiled a database of illegal cryptocurrency deals, including Russian transactions used to bypass Western sanctions.

He launched his database in the spring at the Houses of Parliament, attracting worldwide publicity.

His research has riled Vladimir Putin. On Tuesday, Russia’s foreign ministry announced “personal sanctions” against the teenager.

In a statement, the foreign ministry said Alexander was banned from entering Russia in response to his “involvement in circulating defamatory speculations and false information about the policy of the Russian authorities”.

‘Badge of honour’

Alexander told The Telegraph: “I am not bothered at all. In fact I am going to be wearing it [the sanction] as a badge of honour. It shows me that I touched a nerve – I am looking in the right places.”

He added: “Russia can add my name to whatever list they want – it won’t change the facts, it won’t change my work and the pressure that we need to put them under.”

The teenager said cryptocurrency had given Putin “a financial lifeline” and that “the only way we can stop that is to cut off Russia’s crypto supply”.

Alexander’s father Bill Browder, who has spearheaded a worldwide campaign against Kremlin corruption for more than 15 years, said: “This is the first time in history that Russia has sanctioned a high school student. My son is 17 and studying for his A-levels. Putin’s skin is getting so thin they are going after A-level students now.”

‘Public enemy number one’

Mr Browder, who ran an investment fund in Moscow in the early 2000s, began a drive to target corrupt Russian officials after his friend and adviser Sergei Magnitsky died of mistreatment in a Russian jail.

Magnitsky had exposed corruption and misconduct among senior officials and then been arrested on trumped-up charges before his death in 2009.

Mr Browder, an Anglo-American businessman who escaped to London, has been described as Putin’s “public enemy number one”. He has been responsible for introducing anti-corruption sanctions laws in dozens of countries around the world, forcing the freezing of Russian assets overseas.

He has received death threats as a result of his campaigns against Putin.

The decision by the Kremlin to sanction his son follows the launch of Alexander’s Global Cryptocurrency Laundering Database.

It identifies cryptocurrency transactions used to fund crime by gangs and rogue states and has uncovered 164 deals to date totalling more than $350bn (£260bn) worth of “illicit” money laundering.

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Alexander said: “The large majority of the deals are carried out by state-sanctioned countries, largely through Russia, North Korea and Iran.”

He said among the deals he had highlighted which had “clearly touched a nerve” was the use of a cryptocurrency called A7A5, which used the Russian ruble to underpin its value.

Alexander added: “Over the last six months I have exposed how Russia have used the A7A5 ‘stable coin’ as one of their main tools for sanctions’ evasion. I have been working to take it down.”

Russia has continued to sanction critics of Putin’s regime since the outbreak of the war with Ukraine.

The sanctions are largely symbolic since those placed on the banned list have no intention of travelling to the country while Putin remains president. Visiting would be unsafe.

Others sanctioned alongside Alexander on Tuesday included Catherine Belton, author of an award-winning and best-selling book detailing corruption inside the Putin regime.