Arkady Volozh condemned the Russian invasion on Thursday. He called the attack “barbaric” just days after being criticized for trying to distance himself from Russia – Russians were outraged that Volozh called himself “a Kazakh-born Israeli tech entrepreneur” on his website. The other party, in turn, criticized him for not being firm enough in his statements against .
Yandex founder criticizes Russia for war in Ukraine
Arkady Volozh decided to make a statement that this time leaves no illusions.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is barbaric and I strongly oppose it. I am appalled at the plight of people in Ukraine – many of them my friends and relatives – whose homes are bombed daily
– wrote the billionaire, quoted by Reuters.
Although I moved to Israel in 2014, I have to take some responsibility for the country’s actions
– added Volozh, who has both a Russian and a passport.
at $1.1 billion He made his fortune as one of the founders of the Russian Internet search engine, a competitor on the local market. In 2011, he even managed to introduce the company to the stock exchange. In 2022, he resigned from its leadership and the position of president, after the European Union put him on the list in June, which Volozh considered a mistake at the time. As he explains, from the beginning of the full-scale invasion, he supported Russian engineers who wanted to leave the country.
Reuters writes that Yandex from the beginning of the invasion tried to balance between domestic pressure on the one hand and pressure from Western investors on the other. Currently, Yandex is undergoing restructuring, the aim of which is to separate the main businesses earning a living from Yandex NV, a parent company registered in the Netherlands.
Finland limits the activities of Yandex
Finnish authorities have banned the Russian technology group Yandex and its Dutch partner Ridetech from transferring personal data of customers of the Yango ride-ordering application to Russia. It operates in fourteen countries, including Finland.
In June, a Moscow court fined the Yandex group 2 million rubles for repeatedly refusing to provide the Russian Federal Security Service with information about its users. Last August, Finnish authorities confiscated the assets of Yandex.
The Finnish authorities have stated that their decision is provisional, valid for three months and based on European Union data protection legislation.
Source: Gazeta
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