The Arbitration Court of the North-West District sustained the lower court’s ruling and ordered the recovery of more than 118.5 million rubles from Maxim Dobychin, the former bankruptcy trustee of the Novgorod poultry farm known as “Gvardeets,” for losses linked to cryptocurrency mining. This outcome was reported by RIA Novosti, citing the court’s press service.
The court noted that electricity used by mining equipment at the plant was charged to the facility in a manner beyond legal oversight. Dobychin’s inaction—specifically his failure to implement safeguards that would protect the property—was found to be unlawful, constituting negligence in managing the trust’s assets.
In April 2020, authorities uncovered roughly a thousand mining rigs operating on the site of the former poultry farm. These so‑called mining farms drew power directly from the grid in ways designed to bypass metering, a practice that drew significant regulatory scrutiny and legal repercussions.
Elizaveta Danilova, the Director of the Financial Stability Department at the Central Bank of Russia, stated in late February that the regulator’s position is clear: legitimizing cryptocurrency transactions in Russia could spur illicit activity and pose fundamental risks to the country’s financial system.
By the end of February, Deputy Energy Minister Pavel Snikkars stated that cryptocurrency mining’s share of Russia’s total energy consumption was about 0.6–0.8% as of the end of 2022, highlighting the sector’s growing footprint within the national energy landscape.