Russische Stromnetz-Mitarbeiter verhaftet: Verdacht auf illegales Crypto-Mining mit Staatsstrom

Strom klauen für Bitcoin – russische Behörden greifen durch.

Die Meldung schlug ein wie ein Blitz: Mitarbeiter eines regionalen Energieversorgers sollen staatliche Infrastruktur für private Mining-Farmen missbraucht haben. Die Ermittlungen laufen, die Anklage steht: Diebstahl von Elektrizität im großen Stil.

Das perfekte Verbrechen? Fast.

Die Rechnung ging nicht auf. Die ungewöhnlich hohen Verbrauchsdaten fielen auf – ein digitaler Fußabdruck, den die ASICs nicht verstecken konnten. Die Behörden folgten der Spur der Energie direkt zu den illegalen Rechenzentren.

Ein klassischer Fall von Gier. Die mutmaßlichen Täter umgingen nicht nur die Sicherheitssysteme, sie zapften direkt die Lebensader der öffentlichen Versorgung an. Ein Risiko, das weit über die gestohlene Kilowattstunde hinausgeht.

Die Branche atmet auf – und schaut gleichzeitig nervös zur Seite. Solche Vorfälle liefern Kritikern munition. Sie bestätigen jedes Vorurteil über verschwenderischen Energiehunger und kriminelle Energie. Ein PR-Albtraum, während seriöse Miner um grünen Zertifikate und ESG-Scores feilschen.

Die Moral von der Geschichte? Selbst der dezentralste Traum scheitert manchmal an der altening Rechnung des Stromanbieters. Oder in diesem Fall: an der Staatsanwaltschaft.

Russian police arrest illegal mining accomplices

According to local media reports, all seven employees of the power grid company who were arrested provided paid services to mining farm owners.

Some of those services include artificially lowering electricity meter readings and assisting in evading scheduled and unscheduled inspections by the authorities. They did this in exchange for monetary compensation, according to what the police said.

With their assistance, the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs claims that up to two illegal cryptocurrency mining data centers located on private property in the city of Chekhov evaded detection even though they had been operating successfully since 2024, well outside the oversight of regulatory authorities.

Estimates of all the preliminary damage that has been caused by the covert assistance of energy company employees to miners is approximately 10 million rubles.

The arrest aligns with a broader ongoing crackdown in Russia on illegal crypto mining, an activity that drains a significant amount of electricity, leaving huge strains on the grid.

In the past, Rosseti had complained about this, citing losses running into the millions. And now, authorities have doubled efforts, and this arrest is a step forward in that process.

Authorities shut down other illegal mining farms

The arrests come days after the FSB and police officers shut down an illegal mining farm that caused 5 million rubles in damage to the Priargunsky Industrial Mining and Chemical Association (PIMCHO), named after E.P. Slavsky.

According to the Transbaikal Office of the Federal Security Service (FSB), the farm housed a network of cryptocurrency mining equipment connected to the PIMCU power grid, and electricity was “consumed without metering” while the actual consumption was deliberately underreported, the security officials claimed.

A search of the property turned up mining equipment that was seized, and a criminal case has been opened under Article 165, Part 2, Clause “b” of the Russian Criminal Code (causing property damage by deception or breach of trust on an especially large scale).

Earlier, Russian newspaper Kommersant, citing a draft protocol of the government commission on electric power, had reported that a year-round ban on mining is planned for 2026 in southern Buryatia and the Trans-Baikal Territory.

This is likely to curb illegal mining in those areas. However, how effective it will be remains to be seen.

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