Yandex co-founder Arkady Volozh gave the German newspaper Spiegel his first major interview since the start of the war in Ukraine. In it, he called the Russian invasion “barbaric” and Yandex.News censorship a “compromise.”
Answering questions from a Spiegel correspondent about the war, Volozh said that it “should not have started at all.” According to the businessman, sanctions against Russia cannot be compared with the suffering that Ukrainians experience every day. At the same time, the co-founder of Yandex noted that he was glad when the European Union excluded him from its sanctions list. In addition, according to Volozh, the war in Ukraine “marks the end of an era” during which Russia could have taken a different path.
The businessman also said that censorship in Yandex.News was a “compromise.” According to Volozh, he and his partners “could not change the general trend in the country.” At the same time, he regrets that he did not close the aggregator. .</p>» data-type=»hint» data-slate-custom=»{"data-body":"<p>In February 2017, Roskomnadzor included the Yandex.News service in the register of news aggregators and obliged it to check the accuracy of news. </p>","body":"<p>In February 2017, Roskomnadzor included the Yandex.News service in the register of news aggregators and obliged them to check the accuracy of news.</p>"," ;isCreated»:false,»migrationId»:»1646998844495″,,»html»:null}»>in 2017.
“We followed the logic that although we saw good things disappearing, we believed there was still a chance to change this dynamic. We were forced to make compromises and always hoped that this would pass. But we could not change the general trend in the country. The more successful Yandex became, the more it came under the close attention of the authorities. I would say that we resisted as long as we could,” Volozh said.
The entrepreneur answered questions about his new project — the Nebius Group holding. It was created on the basis of the Dutch assets of Yandex. Volozh himself, heading the company, intends to develop artificial intelligence models. He added that Nebius Group's management is «dominated by Western nationals.»
In the summer of 2022, the European Union added Arkady Volozh to the sanctions list. This was explained by the fact that he, being a leading Russian businessman in the IT field, provides income to the Russian government. In addition, the EU recalled that Yandex censors content related to the war in Ukraine. Then he left the post of CEO of Yandex.
In August 2023, the businessman spoke out “categorically against Russia’s barbaric invasion of Ukraine.” In the spring of 2024, the European Union lifted sanctions against Arkady Volozh.