- Russian electricity providers are fighting against the rise in illegal Bitcoin mining.
- They are now using AI to track down criminals.
- Andrei Yatsun’s son was arrested.
Russian electricity providers have a new weapon in their arsenal to stop illegal Bitcoin miners from stealing more than $16.6 million in electricity a year: artificial intelligence.
This is what Boris Ebzeev, director of Rosseti, the Russian state-owned electric power company, says said the Russian publication CNews that his company is “currently exploring and testing entirely new approaches to combating illegal mining.”
“We plan to implement AI data analysis technology directly in the smart meters themselves, or in the wearable devices that we install next to them,” Ebzeev said. “We are already using big data analysis and elements of artificial intelligence. »
However, as energy providers get smarter, so do illegal Russian cryptocurrency miners, who are finding new ways to evade detection and throw investigators off their trail.
Fight back
Ebzeev acknowledged that the biggest challenges for investigators looking for signs of illegal cryptocurrency mining come when illicit miners set up shop on industrial sites.
“At these sites, access to electrical installations and meters is limited and the load is unevenly distributed,” he explains.
An even bigger problem is the rise of “roaming” crypto mining units, Ebzeev noted.
“It is now common to see illegal miners using mobile mining centers the size of a trailer or shipping container,” Ebzeev said. “This allows operators to change their illegal login locations in the blink of an eye.”
But the Rosseti chief said integrating new AI solutions into the smart meters of ordinary residents and commercial users would help engineers fight back.
“Our proprietary AI solution allows us to analyze data streams from all types of electricity meters,” explained Ebzeev. “Its algorithms allow us to identify consumption anomalies, detect meter falsifications and monitor numerous statistics. »
He concluded that Rosseti subsidiaries are now creating “dedicated teams of specialists” who will operate new diagnostic equipment and analytical systems.
More than $1.5 million in damages
As electrical engineers continue to develop new ways to detect illegal miners, Russian criminals are stepping up their efforts to steal electricity from public grids.
The Russian newspaper Kommersant reported that Rosseti and the Federal Security Service, also known as the FSB, took down a sophisticated illegal cryptocurrency mining scheme that they say was orchestrated by the son of a former presidential candidate.
The newspaper said one of those arrested was Maxim Yatsun, owner of a construction company and son of former Russian presidential candidate Andrey Yatsun.
The FSB branch in the Chelyabinsk region said it had arrested four individuals suspected of stealing electricity worth more than $1.5 million. Officers accused the quartet of “fraud on a particularly large scale”.
Officials say that between November 2024 and April 2025, the suspects “repeatedly” sent a local electricity supplier “false documents, falsifying the volumes of electricity consumed” at their industrial facility, where they installed banks of crypto mining rigs.
Police sources said Kommersant that security forces had raided Maxim Yatsun’s home and suspected that the mining rigs used at the site belonged to him.
Tim Alper is a news correspondent at DL News. Do you have any advice? Email to [email protected].
