Gray miners have caused billions of rubles worth of damage to the state budget of the Russian Federation

In Russia, law enforcement officers have opened dozens of criminal cases against illegal miners, the damage from the work of crypto farms is estimated at billions of rubles. Due to illegal activities, residential areas, hospitals and schools remain without electricity, and the networks simply cannot stand it.

For example, in Chelyabinsk, local residents noticed an unusual row next to their houses, trailers appeared on the territory of the electrical substation. People's suspicions that mining equipment is inside were confirmed by an employee. Because of this, residents of neighboring houses have constant problems with electricity.

"You see, here they are. Not connected yet. Here, they will be connected in this cell," said a local resident.

Law enforcement officers eliminate illegal farms almost daily throughout the country. So, in Makhachkala, 32 devices were found in an ordinary basement of a high-rise building. They were immersed in liquid for covert operation, the invisible farm stole energy around the clock.

"There was no meter, which caused many accidents on the power line. There were interruptions, there were failures, transformers burned down," said Bagavdin Bagavdinov, an employee of the energy marketing company.

In the Kostroma region, dozens of devices were found under the windows of the director of the thermal power plant, who is also involved in a criminal case of bribery and abuse of office.

"For committing illegal actions in favor of the businessman, the accused received a bribe from him in the amount of at least 256 thousand rubles, and the defendant was given a preventive measure in the form of house arrest," said Olga Vakurova, senior assistant to the head of the Investigative Committee for the Kostroma Region.

According to the Izvestia correspondent, over the past few years, power engineers who helped create illegal mining farms have already been detained in the Kostroma region.

"Here's one of them. This is an abandoned cowshed, but in 2020, 250 system units were the main cows here, milking cryptocurrency from the network. The place is more than suitable, the noise was not heard by the locals away from the road, and most importantly, there is an electrical substation within walking distance," the journalist explained.

The police found out that the head of the department of the energy marketing company did everything possible to protect the farm from inspections, did not even allow subordinates to take evidence.

Card with a bit: a surge in black mining has been recorded in Russia

Which regions are the leaders in the number of illegal digital asset miners

Earlier, on October 6, Petr Fedorov, associate professor at the National Research University of NIU MIET, told Izvestia that the state budget of the Russian Federation is annually deprived of approximately 10 billion rubles due to illegal mining. As Fedorov explained, the amount he named was revealed by analyzing data from open sources and the volume of resources found.

All important news is on the Izvestia channel in the MAX messenger.