A Not So Ordinary Truck Discovered in Buryatia

Russian authorities in the Republic of Buryatia were stopped in their tracks during their patrol when they stumbled upon a peculiar truck in the middle of the truck.

And it turns out that their instincts were right, because this wasn't just any regular truck but was a portable cryptocurrency mining site created using 95 mining rigs and a mobile transformer station.

The truck was also allegedly leeching off large volumes of electricity using a 10-kilovolt line.

Two individuals believed to be connected to the operation also fled the scene in an SUV before police arrived.

This marks the sixth case of electricity theft linked to crypto mining in Buryatia since the beginning of the year, as confirmed by Rosseti Siberia’s Buryatenergo unit.

Authorities have repeatedly warned that such illegal connections are disrupting local power grids, causing voltage drops, overloads, and increasing the risk of blackouts for residents.

Russia’s Crackdown On Crypto Mining

The crackdown on illegal mining in Buryatia is part of a broader effort by Russian authorities to regulate the crypto mining sector.

Mining is prohibited across most of Buryatia from November 15 to March 15 each year due to regional energy shortages.

Outside of this period, only registered companies operating in designated districts such as Severo-Baikalsky and Muisky are permitted to mine.

The ban started with the clause that crypto mining would be banned during peak energy months, and only in selected regions such as Dagestan, Chechnya and parts of eastern Ukraine.

However, the ban was later expanded to a full ban that has been enforced in the southern Irkutsk region, which is home to major mining industry players like BitRiver.

According to local sources, the Irkutsk region hosts BitRiver’s first and largest data center, launched in 2019 in Bratsk.

Rise of Cryptojacking

Alongside the crackdown on physical mining farms, Russian authorities are also grappling with the growing threat of cryptojacking—unauthorized crypto mining conducted via malware.

Security firm Kaspersky has linked the hacker group known as “Librarian Ghouls” or “Rare Werewolf” to a cryptojacking campaign targeting hundreds of Russian devices.

The group uses phishing emails disguised as legitimate documents to spread malware, which disables Windows Defender and schedules mining activity between 1:00 am and 5:00 am to avoid detection.

During this window, hackers establish remote access, steal login credentials, and assess system specifications to optimize their mining operations.