Russia sanctions 17-year-old UK student over crypto laundering report

The Russian Foreign Ministry announced that it has added Alexander Browder, a 17-year-old British student, to its sanctions list for raising allegations of crypto-based sanctions evasion and money laundering. In a report from March, Browder claimed that Russia, Iran, and North Korea used cryptocurrency to launder approximately $350 billion in illicit funds. He specifically pointed to a ruble-pegged stablecoin, A7A5, as a tool for circumventing Western sanctions. Russia has banned Browder and four other British citizens from entering the country. Browder stated that he was proud to be the first high school student sanctioned by an authoritarian regime for exposing corruption. He is known as the founder of the Global Cryptocurrency Laundering Database, an open-source database that tracks such cases.