Legal

Siberian utility filed 137 lawsuits over crypto miners using cheap power

January 28, 2022

Irkutskenergosbyt, the main utility company in Irkutsk, Siberia, is looking to collect almost $800,000 from owners of crypto farms that have allegedly caused a spike in local electricity consumption. In total, the company has filed 137 lawsuits against customers who set up mining facilities in basements and garages. The company says these home miners are engaged in entrepreneurial …

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Moscow court lifts US investor Michael Calvey’s restrictions on leaving home

January 25, 2022

The Meshchansky District Court of Moscow has lifted the house arrest restrictions on US citizen Michael Calvey, the founder of top private equity fund Baring Vostok,  three years after his arrest and months in jail.  The courts previously ruled that Calvey was forbidden to leave the house after 8pm, communicate with witnesses outside the framework …

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No exchange, no investment, no mining: Russia’s central bank proposes triple ban on crypto

January 27, 2022

Bank of Russia proposed today to ban cryptocurrency investment and mining as governments around the world crack down on the decentralized currencies, citing a variety of threats including monetary stability. At the moment, conducting transactions with cryptocurrencies is illegal in Russia, but investing and buying crypto through exchanges is permitted under a recent change. Russian citizens’ transactions using decentralized …

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Yandex announces settlement of anti-monopoly claims

January 19, 2022

Yandex (NASDAQ and MOEX: YNDX), one of Europe’s largest internet companies and the leading search and ride-hailing provider in Russia, today announced that it has reached a settlement with the Federal Antimonopoly Service of Russia (FAS) and a consortium of Russian Internet companies in connection with an antitrust claim brought against Yandex. The claim related …

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Russia imposes record fines to Google, Meta for failing to remove banned content

December 28, 2021

On Friday last week, Russia slapped tech giants Google and Meta with penalties totaling over $125 million for repeated failure to remove banned content, the media reported. A Moscow magistrate’s court fined Google 7.2 billion rubles (around $98 million at the current exchange rate) under a legal clause that allows courts to impose between 5% and …

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Irene Shvakman, BNPL pioneer in Eastern Europe: “Clear regulation is needed to maintain online consumers’ trust in delayed payment offers”

March 27, 2024

As Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) has become a popular way for consumers around the globe to settle their purchases, Russia’s Central Bank is seeking to regulate this activity. In this exchange with East-West Digital News,, industry pioneer Irene Shvakman – who co-founded Revo Technologies, Russia’s first BNPL service, even before today’s Western leaders appeared …

Irene Shvakman, BNPL pioneer in Eastern Europe: “Clear regulation is needed to maintain online consumers’ trust in delayed payment offers” Read More

Russia threatens to block YouTube for taking down another German RT channel

December 19, 2021

Roskomnadzor, Russia’s telecom and Internet regulator, is threatening to restrict access to YouTube after the video platform shut down yet another German-language channel run by the Russian state-controlled television network RT (Russia Today). According to a Roskomnadzor press release published on Friday, December 17, the federal censor sent a letter to YouTube’s parent company, Google, demanding that …

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Russian central bank to seek ban on investment in cryptocurrencies

December 19, 2021

The Russian central bank wants to ban investments in cryptocurrencies in Russia, seeing risks to financial stability in the rising number of crypto transactions, two financial market sources close to the bank said. Russia has argued for years against cryptocurrencies, saying they could be used in money laundering or to finance terrorism. It eventually gave …

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Former US citizen and Ulmart co-owner August Meyer arrested in St. Petersburg

December 16, 2021

August Meyer, co-owner of cosmetics chain Rive Gauche and former co-owner of now defunct online retail Ulmart — was arrested Wednesday last week in St. Petersburg. Meyer and his wife, Inna Meyer, are suspected of embezzling 2.4 billion rubles ($32.6 million at the current exchange rate) from state-owned bank Sberbank on the pretext of developing Ulmart shortly …

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“A new Dreyfus affair:” Ilya Sachkov asks President Putin to be transferred from jail to house arrest

November 23, 2021

Ilya Sachkov, the top cybersecurity businessman who was arrested under charges of “state treason” in late September,  has claimed he is innocent and asked President Putin to be transferred from jail to house arrest during the investigation.  Excerpts of his letter to Putin were shared with Forbes Russia by Sachkov’s lawyer Sergey Afanasyev. “I think this is a …

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Now a top global crypto mining location, Russia considers introducing higher energy tariffs

October 19, 2021

Russia has become one of the world’s top three locations for bitcoin mining activity, following China’s crackdown on crypto earlier this year.  In August 2021, according to the Cambridge Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index,  bitcoin miners in Russia accounted for 13.6% of the total global BTC mining hash rate distribution, bested by only the United States (26.2%) and Kazakhstan (21.9%). Energy consumption has grown …

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Facebook and Google exposed to record fines for not removing unlawful content in Russia

October 11, 2021

Russia could impose record fines on Facebook and Google (held responsible for YouTube) for not removing prohibited content. Since these companies are accused of repeated violations, fines could be in the range of 1/20 to 1/10 of the yearly revenues they generate in Russia. Thus Facebook, which makes around 10 billion rubles per year in the …

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