The parent company of Yandex, known as the "Google of Russia", has decided to cut ties with Russia to protect its new business from the war in Ukraine.
Yandex's parent company's decision represents a potential blow to Russian President Vladimir Putin's efforts to promote indigenous, high-quality tech alternatives at a time when Russia is cut off from Western technology goods and services due to sanctions.
"The New York Times" on Thursday (November 24) quoted two people familiar with the matter as saying that the parent company of Yandex, which is a Dutch holding company, has comprehensively adjusted its business focus, transferred the most promising new technologies to markets outside Russia, and sold Russian products. Established businesses, including a popular internet browser and food delivery and ride-hailing apps.
They asked not to be identified due to the sensitivity of the discussions.
Yandex's parent company's plan, aimed at securing business from Russia's domestic market, also underscores the impact of Western sanctions on Russia's once thriving tech sector.
The Ukrainian war has made Yandex's new technology projects, such as self-driving cars, machine learning and cloud services, unfeasible, the people said. One of the people said that these new technologies are inseparable from Western markets, experts and technology, and if technology companies continue to have ties to Russia, they are expected to be doomed to failure.
Yandex's Russian subsidiary will continue to offer the same products in Russia under the new owner.
