Russian tech giant Yandex said Tuesday it has reached a “binding” deal to sell its news platform and homepage to rival VK as war-related sanctions fuel uncertainty over the Russian tech industry’s future. VK said it exited its joint venture with top lender Sberbank to pave the way for the deal with Yandex, once considered the jewel …
Yandex reaches “binding” deal to divest news service, homepage to VK Read More
According to the latest release of Atlas VPN’s Global VPN Adoption Index, downloads of virtual private networks (VPN) reached 215 million in the first half of 2022. Russia recorded the most significant shift, with nearly 35 million downloads of VPN services in said period. While Russians had only made only 12.5 million downloads during the previous year, …
35 million Russians downloaded VPN applications in H1 2022 Read More
Sigma Software Group, a Swedish-Ukrainian IT company, and Tech Nation, a UK platform providing support services to forward-looking leaders and founders, have teamed up to host‘Hack for Peace.’ This cross-European hackathon aims to support the creation of anti-war tech products. The organizers welcome aspiring newcomers, advanced coders, professional entrepreneurs, mentors, investors, and all others who …
The volume of online sales of physical goods in Russia grew 1.5-fold year-on-year in the first half of 2022 to 2.2 trillion ($27.5 billion at the pre-war exchange rate, or $36.4 at the current one), the Association of Internet Commerce Companies said on August 11, as reported by TASS. “Total online commerce amounted to 2.3 trillion …
VK, previously known as Mail.ru Group, owner of Russian social network VKontakte, reported a second-quarter net loss of 3.4 billion roubles ($56 million). The loss is partly due to a 14 billion rouble ($231 million) foreign exchange hit. The VKontakte network, often compared to Facebook, has emerged as a key player in the race to …
Russian digital giant VK hit by second quarter loss Read More
Russian authorities have blocked or deleted some 138,000 websites since Moscow launched its invasion of neighboring Ukraine in February, the country’s prosecutor general said Monday. Following over 300 requests from prosecutors, Russia’s communications watchdog Roskomnadzor has censored thousands of websites in a bid to combat “fake news,” according to prosecutor general Igor Krasnov. “After the start of …
Russia has blocked 138,000 websites since Ukraine invasion, prosecutor says Read More
According to a report published last week by US publication Business Insider, a range of western tech firms are users of FindFace, a controversial face recognition technology developed by Russian startup NtechLab. FindFace matches faces against social media accounts, regardless of privacy rights, among other facial recognition capabilities. Its approach is similar to that developed by US …
The former head of Russia’s top tech firm Yandex Tigran Khudaverdyan has challenged sanctions against him over the Ukraine war in a European Union court. Khudaverdyan filed a lawsuit on June 7 demanding the European Council lift its “discriminatory and disproportionate” sanctions against him. The lawsuit was first reported by TV channel RTVI on Monday evening. Khudaverdyan quit as Yandex executive …
Samsung smartphones have disappeared from store shelves in some areas of Russia, media outlet RBC reported Thursday, as overall smartphone sales reached a decade low. Customers in some major Russian cities are being asked to wait up to five days for deliveries, according to RBC. Western electronics manufacturers Samsung and Apple suspended shipments to Russia earlier this …
A Russian court fined U.S. tech giants WhatsApp, Snapchat and Tinder on Thursday for refusing to store the personal data of Russian users inside the country, as stipulated by the demanding local legislation, U.S. company Meta, the owner of messaging service Whatsapp, was ordered by Moscow’s Tagansky District Court to pay 18 million rubles (nearly $300,000 at …
Russia fines Apple, Snapchat, Tinder, WhatsApp for data storage law violations Read More
The Russian government intends to spend more than 30 billion rubles ($375 million at the pre-war exchange rate, $500 million at the current rate) on an R&D program to deploy 6G until 2025, reports business daily Kommersant. Skoltech and the Radio Research Institute could conduct the project, which will include the development of equipment prototypes as well as research on electromagnetic …
In the weeks and months after Russia invaded Ukraine, Zvartnots International Airport in Armenia’s capital Yerevan was flooded with Russians leaving their country, among them a growing number of tech workers. Fearing flight cancellations, exit bans, and border controls, many booked their tickets at exorbitant prices, wiped their phones, and arrived in the small country nestled in …
Fleeing Putin, Russian tech workers find a home in Armenia Read More
