When 17-year-old Alexander Browder was scrolling the news in the back of his economics class this week, he was surprised to see his own name pop up.

Russia had added Browder and four other British citizens to its entry ban list in the latest round of retaliatory sanctions announced by the Foreign Ministry on Tuesday. Award-winning investigative journalists Catherine Belton and Richard Holmes were also on the list. 

“It’s a badge of honor,” Browder told The Moscow Times. “And I’m in great company.” 

Browder believes he was targeted over a report he wrote for the Henry Jackson Society think tank detailing Russia’s use of cryptocurrency networks to evade Western sanctions…