Russia bans state-level crypto mining in regions with energy shortage

Evgeny Grabchak, Russia’s Deputy Energy Minister announced on October 30th that Russia will soon place a restriction on cryptocurrency mining in some areas with electricity shortages.

According to reports, Evgeny Grabchak stated that Russia will be prohibiting Bitcoin mining since there is a critical electricity shortage in some regions.

“If we say that mining is the forerunner of digitalization, then mining will soon be banned at the state level in some regions.” Evgeny Grabchak

During the RBC tech forum, Grabchak said that far east, southwestern Siberia, and southern areas are facing immense energy shortages. Providing sufficient power capacities to these areas will be impossible until at least 2030.

Russia’s mining ban comes after crypto legislation

The announcement came after Russian President, Vladimir Putin signed a law regulating the circulation of cryptocurrency. This law will be functioning from November 1st onwards.

The legislation gives the Russian government the authority to prohibit crypto-related mining in specific areas or regions while also setting the necessary guidelines for implementing these restrictions.

The newly signed legislation also restricts the advertisement of crypto and the related services that utilize it.

In August 2024, Yandex, Russia’s prominent search engine made changes to its advertising policies to undo or ban ads for any crypto-related service in the country.

The statement by Yandex specifies that the ban prohibits ads for crypto exchanges, blockchain services, crypto mining, smart contracts, and initial coin offerings. Ads that promote earnings from the abovementioned activities will also be blocked.

The advertisement of services for checking crypto wallets and transactions for money laundering purposes was also banned.

Furthermore, TASS reported in September that the Russian Finance Ministry is also considering a tax on the consumption of electricity by crypto miners. However, no final decision regarding this has been made yet.