Russia's Duma Committee Recommends Advancing Crypto Mining Bill with Fines Up to 150 Million Rubles

According to ChainCatcher citing Bits.media, Russia's State Duma committee on May 9 recommended advancing a government-submitted bill that would criminalize unregistered cryptocurrency mining. The proposal adds Article 171.6 to the Criminal Code, targeting unregistered mining operations and unlicensed providers of mining infrastructure. Penalties scale with severity: mining generating over 3.5 million rubles in income or losses faces fines up to 1.5 million rubles or two years' income, or forced labor up to two years; organized criminal activity or income exceeding 13 million rubles carries fines up to 2.5 million rubles or three years' income, with imprisonment up to five years. All cases include cryptocurrency confiscation.

Russia currently has approximately 50,000 entities engaged in mining, but only 1,489 registered entities (609 legal entities and 880 individual entrepreneurs) appear in the state registry, according to government data.