Russia holds 2,700 Bitcoin mining machines operating illegally.

Russian police have just dismantled a large-scale illegal Bitcoin mining farm in St. Petersburg, which had been operating secretly since 2018. According to the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs, three suspects took advantage of a commercial electricity connection contract to conceal the mining facility, using tricks to tamper with the electricity meter to pay only a small part of the actual costs. When discovered in August 2025, authorities seized over 2,700 mining machines, two industrial transformers, and the entire cooling system. The three suspects were arrested on charges of causing property damage through fraud. The case is considered one of the largest equipment seizure operations in Russian history. The Ministry of Internal Affairs stated that they are expanding the investigation into accomplices, amid the increasing prevalence of illegal crypto mining activities in North Caucasus and South Siberia, where electricity costs are low.