Teen researcher lands on Kremlin blacklist after exposing crypto network

Alexander Browder, 17, discovered in the middle of class that Russia had placed him on its entry-ban list as a “persona non grata.” Moscow said he was spreading “disinformation,” but Browder dismissed the move as “an honor” and said he was in “good company,” alongside veteran investigative journalists.

Browder’s research, done while his classmates studied economics, uncovered what he described as a hidden financial network he called “Hydra.” He traced how Russia used a cryptocurrency stablecoin called A7A5, pegged to the ruble, to launder money and evade international sanctions. He said about $100 billion moved through the network via exchanges in Kyrgyzstan and was used directly to help fund the war in Ukraine.

The teenager also said he exposed corruption at the highest levels, including claims that a businessman linked to the network rented a luxury private jet for Kyrgyzstan’s president. He said the work mattered because it revealed the Kremlin’s secret money routes.

For Browder, the investigation is personal as well as political. His father, Bill Browder, is one of Vladimir Putin’s harshest critics and became an anti-corruption campaigner after his friend and lawyer Sergei Magnitsky was tortured and killed in a Russian prison in 2009. Alexander said he has lived with threats of violence and kidnapping all his life, but refuses to be intimidated. He also said the report led the British government to impose new sanctions on Russia’s crypto infrastructure, and he told Moscow, “I am not backing down.”