Russian law enforcers have confiscated over 200 crypto mining rigs after power outages struck a village in Ingushetia.
Moscow banned crypto mining in the small republic, in the North Caucasus Region, on January 1, citing concerns about the demand on local energy grids.
FSB Seizes Over 200 Crypto Mining Rigs
However, a recent study revealed that Ingushetia’s annual energy consumption growth rate “jumped” up by 40.8% in 2024.
Crypto mining has proliferated in the North Caucasus and Southern Siberia, despite Moscow’s efforts to force miners to switch off their rigs in the winter months.
Items seized by Federal Security Service (FSB) officers during a raid on an “illegal crypto mining farm in Ingushetia, Russia. (Source: Federal Security Service’s Ingushetia Branch)The media outlet Gazeta Ingushetia reported that the regional branch of the Federal Security Service (FSB) and the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for the North Caucasus Federal District raided the mining “farm” in the village of Kantyshevo in the Nazran District.
Officers said that they found “hundreds of cryptocurrency mining devices” in “non-residential premises.”
The investigators said the “farm’s” operators “organized a large-scale theft” of electricity.
This “theft,” they said, resulted in “overloads” on the local power grid and “frequent emergency power outages for local residents.”
Investigation Ongoing
An FSB spokesperson said that investigators were still assessing the “scale” of the “damage.”
But they confirmed that they had already seized “more than 200 units of specialized [crypto mining] equipment.” The spokesperson added:
“Illegal [crypto] mining farms not only cause millions of rubles’ worth of damage, but also pose a direct threat to the stability of the energy system. We will work to crack down hard on illegal miners.”
The FSB added that its investigation was “ongoing.” However, it added that it would press “criminal charges” against the farm’s “operators.”
The agency plans to charge the miners with “electricity theft” and other power-related legal violations.
A valley in Ingushetia. (Source: Vyacheslav Argenberg [CC BY 4.0])Ingushetia’s Power Problems
The FSB said that, if found guilty, the operators could face “both heavy fines” and jail time.
Local power engineers have warned that the growth in illegal crypto mining in Ingushetia means there is now a “high risk of accidents and power outages” in the republic.
The mining ban, in its current form, runs until March 15, 2031. It covers regions in Russia, as well as Russian-controlled Ukrainian territories that Moscow says are now part of the Russian Federation.
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