Russian Police Seize More Than 2,700 Crypto Mining Rigs in St. Petersburg Raid

Russian police say they have confiscated over 2,700 crypto mining rigs from a facility in ￰1￱ that went online in ￰2￱ Russian media outlet RBC reported that the facility operators used power grid know-how to manipulate meter ￰3￱ law enforcement officers break into a container housing hundreds of crypto mining rigs during a raid. () 2,700 Crypto Mining Rigs Confiscated Irina Volk, a spokesperson for the Russian Interior Ministry, explained that “over seven years ago,” three unnamed ￰4￱ residents “signed a contract to connect a commercial property to the power grid.” However, earlier this year, energy grid investigators began to suspect something was amiss with the property’s power ￰5￱ followed up with a probe, which revealed a discrepancy between meter readings at the facility and actual usage ￰6￱ Interior Ministry and police joined the investigation, eventually raiding the ￰7￱ released a video on the ministry’s Telegram channel, showing officers conducting the ￰8￱ video shows officers forcing a man to the floor inside a ￰9￱ officers then force open a locked shipping container with a crowbar.

Inside, the container appears to be housing thousands of operational crypto mining ￰10￱ said they found several of these containers at the ￰11￱ and other cooling equipment also appear to be functioning inside the ￰12￱ then force open the door to another building, which also houses banks of hundreds of ￰13￱ law enforcement officers find thousands of crypto mining rigs during a raid. () Officers Confiscate Transformers and Cooling Equipment Volk said ministry officials believe that the suspects used advanced electrical knowledge to manipulate the ￰14￱ meter then provided low readings to the power provider, allowing the suspects to pay for a tiny fraction of the power they had ￰15￱ crypto mining “farm” operated unhindered between March 2018 and August 2025, the spokesperson ￰16￱ said they confiscated all of the mining rigs, in addition to two transformers and cooling ￰17￱ remanded the trio in custody and charged them with causing “property damage by deception or abuse of trust.” The European Union has proposed imposing sanctions on A7A5, a ruble-backed stablecoin tied to sanctioned Russian actors ￰0￱ — Bloomberg (@business) October 6, 2025 Illegal Russian Crypto Miners: Going Underground Volk said the ministry is continuing its search for possible ￰18￱ ministry did not reveal how much electricity they believe the suspects had stolen from the grid, nor its monetary worth or the type of coins the trio mined.

However, illegal crypto mining appears to be on the rise in Russia and Russia-controlled ￰19￱ mid-September, Russian police unearthed a small network of illegal mining centers in what Moscow calls the Donetsk People’s ￰20￱ President Donald Trump said that he'd want to know what Ukraine planned to do with US-made Tomahawk missiles before agreeing to supply them because he does not want to escalate Russia's war against Ukraine. #Watch #Trump #Ukraine #TomahawkMissiles #Russia #War … ￰21￱ — CNBC-TV18 (@CNBCTV18News) October 7, 2025 Officials said the centers’ operators connected 25 rigs directly to the grid, bypassing meters in the ￰22￱ network’s operators caused damages worth 14 million rubles ($170,633), officials ￰23￱ crypto mining is particularly rife in traditional Russian Bitcoin mining hotspots like the North Caucasus and Southern ￰24￱ year, power providers in Dagestan announced they had discovered subterranean crypto mining centers, apparently built to avoid detection from energy ￰25￱ illegal miners have also begun using mobile units housed in large trucks and vans to help them relocate if they learn that energy companies have become aware of their activities.