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Tim Alper
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Tim Alper
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Police in Abkhazia are hunting private crypto miners as the de facto South Caucasus state battles a deepening energy crisis.
The government’s press service reported that the Abkhaz State Security Service (SSS) “has seized” almost 200 crypto mining devices “in different parts of the republic” in the space of just four days.
Hunting Private Crypto Miners: Abkhazia’s Power Problems
SSS head Dmitry Kuchuberia told the acting Abkhazia Prime Minister Valery Bganba that police officers “discovered and seized 194 units of mining equipment between December 10 and 13.”
Media outlets have reported police raids in the cities of Ochamchira and Sukhum. Police also raided homes in the Gudauta and Gagra districts.
Abkhazia24 also reported that the Abkhaz Interior Ministry has “seized 10 cryptocurrency mining devices.”
The ministry said that five rigs were “found in an apartment in a residential building in the village of Agudzera.”
Officers also seized another five devices were seized from Voronov Street in Ochamchira. Both sets of rigs belonged to private citizens, the ministry said.
The crackdown appears to have done little to slow crypto miners’ efforts, however.
Timur Dzhindzholiya, the head of the state-run power provider Chernomorenergo, said the energy situation was now “critical” in the republic.
He said that, despite rolling blackouts and the rising cost of electricity imports from Russia, “consumption is not decreasing.”
And this reportedly “indicates that mining farms are continuing to operate” in Abkhazia.
Electricity Shortage
Bganba said he wants to convince acting president Badre Gunba and the de facto state’s parliament to “declare a state of emergency in the energy sector.”
December has been a torrid month for Abkhazia’s deepening power crisis. On December 10, the republic’s internet providers cut off web access for seven hours in a bid to ease crypto mining-related pressure on the grid.
Then, on December 11, the power provider was forced to shut down the key Inguri hydroelectric power station for around 24 hours due to critically low water levels.
Media outlets report that the “energy consumption situation in Abkhazia has reached a critical point.”
Rift With Russia?
Worsening political tensions with Russia means Moscow is unlikely to come to the rescue. Most Western nations consider Abkhazia to be a breakaway part of Georgia.
Russia has indicated that it will no longer provide Abkhazia with cheap power, and will begin charging the republic its standard commercial power rates.
In the past, Moscow has helped ease power shortages with emergency electricity supplies.
The acting Minister of Energy and Transport Dzhansukh Nanba said recently that crypto miners “consume between 10% and 15% of the republic’s electricity.”
