Chairman of the Russian State Duma Committee on Energy Nikolai Shulginov is going to introduce bills to the State Duma that would increase fines for violating mining requirements and establish criminal liability for the theft of electricity during cryptocurrency mining.
These are amendments to the Criminal and Criminal Procedure Codes. According to Shulginov, his office is preparing bills together with the office of the Plenipotentiary Representative of the President of Russia in the North Caucasus Federal District, Yuri Chaika.
“We see an increase in volumes and the adaptation of illegal mining to the bans. Low electricity tariffs for the population in a number of regions, such as the Irkutsk region, Khakassia, the Republic of Tatarstan, and the use of these tariffs for cryptocurrency mining lead to the migration of equipment from industrial data centers to basements, attics, garages and balconies, an increase in unmetered consumption, and an increase in the load on networks,” the head explained the need for amendments committee.
He called the situation “requiring decisive action” and said that he had sent a proposal to Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak to exclude garage cooperatives, cellars and sheds from the category of consumers equal to the population. It is precisely such buildings that illegal cryptocurrency miners are increasingly moving into, the people’s representative complained.
The deputy suggested that the government would support legislative initiatives and take measures to strengthen control over miners, as well as the import of devices for mining digital coins into the country.
Previously, Prosecutor General Alexander Gutsan, at a meeting of the Coordination Council of Prosecutors General of the CIS countries, announced that Russia was going to introduce liability for the illegal circulation of digital assets.
