A British schoolboy has become the first child sanctioned by the Kremlin.
Sixth form student Alexander Browder has compiled a database of illegal cryptocurrency deals, including Russian transactions used to bypass Western sanctions. The 17-year-old’s work has landed him with a ban on traveling to Russia because he exposed Russian money laundering.
His database has attracted worldwide publicity since its launch at the Houses of Parliament in spring.
View 2 Images(Image: Getty Images)
On Tuesday, Russia’s foreign ministry announced “personal sanctions” against Alexander. In a statement, the foreign ministry said Alexander was banned from traveling to Russia because of his “involvement in circulating defamatory speculations and false information about the policy of the Russian authorities”.
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. 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 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.”
It comes as Volodymyr Zelensky has called for a face-to-face meeting with Vladimir Putin in a letter addressed directly to the Russian President. He called for an end to the war and even suggested a coup could be brewing in Russia.
The Ukrainian leader said he was proposing “direct engagement” with Putin in a bid to end the war. He also listed off the difficulties Putin is facing, saying he’d recieved a report outlining how “30,000 Russian soldiers [were] killed and seriously wounded” in May alone.
“It is not as if we in Ukraine are concerned about the fate of Russian soldiers after everything your war has brought to our country,” he said. “But I do care about Ukrainians.”
Hinting that Putin could soon be ousted as the war grows increasingly unpopular in Russia, he said: “But you, too, will have to fight much harder for your own existence — not Russia’s, but your own.
Article continues below
“And this is not a threat from me or from Ukraine. It is a fact of Russian history that you know well: when Russia grows tired, change comes.”