According to the Novosibirsk-based RES (via Kommersant newspaper), police officers searched an abandoned boiler house in a settlement near Iskitim in the Novosibirsk region.
The police found an "illegal connection" to the power grid. According to the police, inside the building there were "special racks several meters high.
These racks contained "more than 100 operating ASIC devices" that were "designed for #cryptocurrency mining".
The scene of the incident in the town of Iskitim, Novosibirsk region, Russia.
Police and energy experts also said they found "unpacked #mining equipment" in the room. The energy company said:
"The damage caused to the power grid by illegal miners runs into millions of rubles [1 ruble = 0.011 US dollars].
According to an employee of the RES, so-called "gray" mining equipment was seized from the site. However, the cryptocurrency mining activity itself falls under what Russian authorities call "gray" activity.
Despite domestic miners claiming that their combined cryptocurrency mining capacity is now second only to that of the United States, mining still does not have legal status in Russia.
Industry giants such as BitRiver have been urging Moscow to "hurry up" and "legalize" their industry for several years now.
However, until lawmakers pass a law recognizing mining as a form of "entrepreneurship," the entire Russian crypto sector will remain in the "gray" underground.
Representatives of energy companies said that they are considering the possibility of initiating criminal proceedings against the alleged organizers of activities in Iskitim.
If the miners are found guilty of breach of trust and embezzlement, they could face up to five years in prison, the media claim.
According to the Russian Interior Ministry, in Dagestan, officers of the Main Directorate of the Russian Interior Ministry for the North Caucasus Federal District "discovered illegal mining on the territory of an abandoned brick factory.
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