"Security Forces Raid Russia's Third-Largest Gold Producer Over Environmental, Safety Violations", 2 July 2025

Russian security services raided the offices and facilities of Yuzhnouralzoloto (South Ural Gold), the country’s third-largest gold producer, as part of an ongoing investigation into environmental violations and workplace safety breaches, the state-run TASS news agency reported Wednesday.

According to TASS, Federal Security Service (FSB) officers searched the company’s headquarters in the Chelyabinsk region as well as its central mine and affiliated organizations.

Agents “identified violations of environmental protection regulations and industrial safety standards,” an FSB representative told TASS.

Investigators also “discovered the operation of industrial facilities in the Plastovsky and Yetkulsky districts that caused pollution in protected water zones” and a “deterioration of environmental conditions.”