Russia’s FSB cracks down on major illegal crypto mining farm in Chelyabinsk
Russia’s powerful Federal Security Service (FSB) is now taking part in efforts to curb illegal cryptocurrency mining across the vast country.
Russian law enforcement’s latest hit is the Bitcoin farm of a businessman with political connections, arrested for the theft of electricity worth millions of rubles.
FSB disrupts major illegal mining operation in Chelyabinsk
Officers from the regional department of the FSB in Chelyabinsk Oblast have shut down a coin minting facility that burned 121 million rubles’ worth of stolen electricity (over $1.3 million).
Four individuals suspected of organizing the massive mining operation have been detained by the local office of the federal security agency, Russian media revealed.
The accomplices are accused of submitting false information about the electricity used to power the crypto farm, the Russian business daily Kommersant wrote in an article on Wednesday.
The fictitious consumption reports, filed between November 2024 and April 2025, have caused significant financial losses for two local utility companies, Uralenergosbyt and Rosseti Ural.
The suspects were identified with the help of the national grid operator Rosseti’s own security department, while the investigation is led by the FSB’s investigative arm, the newspaper noted.
A criminal case for large-scale fraud has been initiated under the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, the agency’s press service announced. The miners may receive up to 10 years in prison.
Russian politician’s son among the mining scheme’s organizers
According to a law enforcement representative, one of the detainees is Maxim Yatsun, owner and chief executive of a construction firm called Dominanta.
The businessman is also the son of former presidential candidate and member of parliament Andrey Yatsun, Kommersant’s regional edition unveiled, quoting a source who chose to remain anonymous.
The latter told the publication that Russian police searched Maxim Yatsun’s home and office. He is believed to be the actual owner of the crypto mining facility.
The entrepreneur’s name is involved in another case that made headlines in the region recently. His company is under investigation for delaying the construction of a multi-story building in the city of Miass, leaving over 80 families without homes.
Russia intensifies crackdown on criminal crypto mining
Mining has been recognized as a legitimate business activity in Russia since it was legalized and regulated last year. To mine legally, companies and individual entrepreneurs are only required to register with the Federal Tax Service (FNS) and pay their taxes and electricity bills.
However, more than two-thirds of the mining enterprises in the country are yet to do that, according to an official estimate, prompting Russian authorities to crack down on those who mint digital currencies outside the law.
The FSB has been increasingly involved in operations against unauthorized crypto farms carried out by local police and employees of power utilities. Three such installations were unplugged from the grid during joint raids in Kemerovo Oblast last week, as reported by Cryptopolitan.
The tools employed by law enforcement agencies and distribution companies to locate the illicit mining facilities are also becoming increasingly sophisticated.
Rosseti is tracking not only energy consumption, including by using data from smart electricity meters, but also internet traffic. This kind of surveillance led to the busting of an underground crypto farm in Kaliningrad this month.
Earlier in November, engineers from the local utility in Dagestan flew a drone equipped with a thermal vision camera to find a mobile mining installation hidden in the back of a van.
This and other republics in the North Caucasus are among a dozen regions, from Russia’s Far East to the occupied oblasts of Eastern Ukraine, that have already banned crypto mining altogether, blaming the activities of both law-abiding and criminal miners for their growing electricity shortages.
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