{"id":51101,"date":"2021-10-13T10:09:25","date_gmt":"2021-10-13T07:09:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/?p=51101"},"modified":"2025-09-02T21:52:21","modified_gmt":"2025-09-02T18:52:21","slug":"irkutsk-governor-complains-to-government-about-illegal-miners","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/irkutsk-governor-complains-to-government-about-illegal-miners\/","title":{"rendered":"Irkutsk governor complains to government about ‘illegal’ miners"},"content":{"rendered":"

The governor of Irkutsk Oblast, Igor Kobzev, wrote a letter to Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak, who oversees the fuel and energy complex, in which he complained about miners. This was reported by Vedomosti<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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In 2021, household electricity consumption in the region will exceed last year’s figures by 159%, Kobzev said. In the first six months of 2021 alone, the consumption level stood at 4.7 billion kWh, whereas during the past four years it totalled 5.9 billion kWh.<\/p>\n

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Such growth does not align with the electricity balances in the region’s development program for 2022\u20132026, the governor noted.<\/p>\n

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In the current situation Kobzev blames “illegal” miners, who consume electricity for cryptocurrency mining at household tariffs.<\/p>\n

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“This is further aggravated by China’s ban on mining and the relocation of a substantial amount of equipment to Irkutsk Oblast,” the letter states.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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As a solution, Kobzev proposed differentiating tariffs for households according to a scheme in which the price gradually increases as consumption grows.<\/p>\n

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According to BitRiver data-centre operator representative Roman Zabuga, there is no electricity shortage in Russia, but the issue here is commercial miners evading taxes and paying electricity at a heavily reduced price.<\/p>\n

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He also noted the importance of refining Russian legislation to legalise mining.<\/p>\n

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“Illegal activity can involve not only individuals but also legal entities. And even very large commercial structures that simply do not know how to organise such a process in Russia so that authorities do not trouble them later,” Zabuga said in a ForkLog interview.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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The Ministry of Energy confirmed that in Irkutsk Oblast there is a problem with illegal miners<\/a>. To engage in such activity, one must enter into a contract with a guaranteed-supply electricity provider and pay for it at the tariff for “other consumers,” the ministry added.<\/p>\n

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In a post on Instagram<\/a>, Kobzev confirmed the letter’s authenticity and clarified that he proposed legally to enshrine mining as a form of entrepreneurial activity. Earlier, with a similar proposal advocated<\/a> by Anatoly Aksakov, head of the State Duma committee on the financial market.<\/p>\n

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In Irkutsk Oblast, residents have traditionally one of the lowest tariffs in Russia. In the second half of 2021, the tariff for urban residents per kWh was set at 1.23 rubles.<\/p>\n

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As ForkLog reported in June, in the Faraday energy-supply company, business pays under a different tariff\u2014the average price for electricity, VAT included, for mining data-centres in Irkutsk Oblast was about 2.9 rubles per kWh. We requested up-to-date data.<\/p>\n

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ForkLog previously reported on Bitcoin mining at the Bratsk Hydroelectric Station.<\/p>\n

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Follow ForkLog’s Bitcoin news on our Telegram<\/a> \u2014 crypto news, prices and analysis.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The governor of Irkutsk Oblast, Igor Kobzev, wrote a letter to Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak, who oversees the fuel and energy complex, in which he complained about illegal miners.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":51102,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"select":"1","news_style_id":"1","cryptorium_level":"","_short_excerpt_text":"","creation_source":"","_metatest_mainpost_news_update":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1137,27],"class_list":["post-51101","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-cryptocurrency-mining","tag-russia"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"views":"18","promo_type":"1","layout_type":"1","short_excerpt":"","is_update":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51101","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51101"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51101\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":51103,"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51101\/revisions\/51103"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/51102"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51101"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51101"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51101"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}