Yandex is on the list of candidates for sanctions for supporting Russian propaganda
Yandex, a Russian multinational information technology company registered in the Netherlands, has been included in the list of candidates for sanctions because of its work for Russian propaganda and the danger to a number of its services as a result of its work for the FSB. This company is known primarily for its search engine, which is a competitor to Google in Russia, and until recently was quite popular in the so-called CIS countries.
This was reported by the National Agency for the Prevention of Corruption (NAPC).
“Yandex services have long been working for Russian propaganda and closely cooperate with the FSB, providing them with access to an array of private user data. It is not about one Yandex company, but about a number of services, both domestic and international,” the NACP said.
According to Ekonomichna Pravda, Yandex continues to operate in Russia and pays significant taxes to the aggressor’s state budget. Yandex’s data sets are stored in three large data centers located in Russia. The FSB has round-the-clock access to them, and quite officially.
“Yandex Search works according to customized algorithms that display information the Kremlin needs on the first pages, and does not include criticism of the government or truthful information about the war against Ukraine.
“Yandex Money, which is 75% owned by Sberbank of Russia, has all the data on online money movements of users.
“Yandex.food and Yandex.taxi have data on clients’ home and work addresses, their work schedules, movements during the day, and the addresses of schools and kindergartens where clients pick up their children.
One of the most dangerous services is Yandex Maps and Yandex Navigator, which some Ukrainian drivers continue to use with a VPN after the invasion. Through them, among other things, the Russians can obtain data on the movement of military equipment and sensitive facilities on the territory of Ukraine.
With access to tracking names, payment cards, and addresses, Yandex can transmit information, for example, about people who come to work in government agencies or embassies of other countries. For example, Yango, a taxi and food delivery service operated in 16 countries outside Russia, was restricted and banned by the authorities of several countries for security reasons. This was done by the governments of Latvia, Estonia, Britain, France, and Kazakhstan.
On behalf of the political regime of the aggressor state, Vladislav Surkov (under sanctions by the US, EU, UK, Ukraine, Canada, Switzerland and Australia) and later Vyacheslav Volodin (under sanctions by the US, EU, UK, Ukraine, Canada, Switzerland, Australia, Japan and New Zealand) were responsible for overseeing Yandex.
At the same time, Yandex services are still available for download on the App Store and Google Play platforms worldwide.
The NACP has already submitted proposals to impose sanctions against Yandex companies to the Security Service of Ukraine and other responsible authorities. The information was provided to the National Agency by the Zaporizhzhia Investigations Center.
