One of the plants of the Russian state corporation Rosteh, headed by a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, plans to acquire hundreds of GPU equipment although Russia still lacks cryptocurrency regulation, leaving mining in a grey economic zone.

Kovylsky Electromechanical Plant, which is almost 50% owned by Roselektronika (97% belongs to the state corporation Rosteh), placed a tender application for the purchase of computer and allegedly mining equipment on the official site of procurement Zakupki.gov.ru.

According to the documentation, Kovylkinsky Electromechanical Plant plans to purchase a large batch of computer components. Among the claimed lots there are 522 video cards, risers, motherboards and processors for a total of 17.6 million rubles ($300 thousand).

The list of computer equipment includes 522 Sapphire Radeon RX580 Nitro video cards with the same number of risers, 174 Thermaltake power units, 87 motherboard units, processors with cooling, RAM, power supply synchronizers and other equipment. The total purchase amount should not exceed 17.6 million rubles (approximately $300 thousand).

As it is stressed in the tender documents, the equipment must be new and produced in 2017 or 2018.

The equipment should be delivered by a single delivery within 15 calendar days from the date of advance payment to the vendor's settlement account.

Taking into account that Rosteсh stops accepting applications for the supply of equipment today, on 23 March, and the results are scheduled to be announced on 26 March, one can conclude that Rostech's plant intends to receive the alleged mining equipment in April, although by this time there will not yet be any cryptocurrency regulation in Russia, and the mining remains half-illegal for regulators.