On July 13, residents of several villages in the Ochamchyr district of the Republic of Abkhazia, involved in mining, staged a protest. Sputnik reports.
Locals say the police confiscated equipment without producing any documentation. On average they seized up to ten mining devices.
According to the district administration, the protesters demanded that they be left alone and allowed to work.
“These are people who have two to five ASIC miners each. This is not about large farms,” officials noted.
To defuse the conflict, district authorities held a meeting with parliament members and the deputy minister of internal affairs. There have been no details of the outcomes released.
As of March 31, 2022, a ban on mining and the import of equipment was in effect.
At the end of March, the local parliament introduced fines and criminal liability for illegal electricity consumption for mining cryptocurrencies. The country has been conducting wide-ranging raids to identify illicit miners.
Recently, Abkhazia’s State Security Service uncovered mining equipment that was found among government officials.
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