Yandex, often described as the Russian Google, has sold its domestic businesses at a bargain price. Bloomberg reports The search and services giant, now based in the Netherlands, has sold off its Russian operations for 475 billion rubles ($5.2 billion) in cash and shares. The new owners include the management group, as well as Russia's largest national energy company, Lukoil, and Russian businessman and former Gazprom executive Alexander Ryazanov, among others. Now that Yandex has cut ties with Russia, it will be able to grow and associate more freely given the sanctions affecting companies with Russian ties following the invasion of Ukraine.
Since the war, Yandex has faced repercussions such as being delisted from Nasdaq. Its founder, Arkady Volozh, faced sanctions from the European Union in the summer of 2022 because the company reportedly supported Russian propaganda. The company soon sold its news aggregation service, and Volozh openly condemned the war.
Reports that Yandex would cut ties with Russia first emerged in late 2022. At the time, the company was facing sanctions repercussions and was rumored to have no path forward to grow projects without Western technology. However, it took a year and a half of negotiations between Yandex and the Kremlin (a necessary step) before Yandex NV was allowed to separate from its Russian businesses. The final deal came with at least a 50 percent discount, a common practice when the Kremlin considers the country of record (in this case, the Netherlands) to be hostile.
