Russia’s leading media conglomerate has launched a domestic rival to the hugely popular video-sharing app TikTok as Russia’s campaign to reduce the influence of foreign websites and technology advances. Gazprom Media, a subsidiary of state-owned gas giant Gazprom, launched the service, named ‘Yappy,’ on Monday. It is currently available to download from both the Apple …
U.S. fake meat manufacturer Beyond Meat has fallen foul of Russia’s counter-sanctions on Western food imports, the Kommersant business daily reported Thursday. Imports of Beyond Meat’s plant-based meat alternatives have been suspended due to a dispute over whether the products violate Russia’s sweeping ban on Western agricultural products. The food embargo was introduced in 2014 in retaliation to EU …
The Moscow Metro on Friday rolled out what authorities have touted as the world’s first fare payment system based on facial recognition technology. The cashless, cardless and phone-less system, called ‘Face Pay,’ has been fitted at special turnstiles across the Russian capital’s more than 240 metro stations. “To enter the metro, passengers won’t need a …
Moscow metro introduces “world’s first” pay-by-face system Read More
The Russian government has decried YouTube’s decision to delete the state-funded RT broadcaster’s German-language channels as “information warfare” and said it will block German media in Russia in retaliation. The video streaming website on Tuesday deleted RT’s DE and DFP channels for breaching coronavirus misinformation policy. “This is a real media war declared by the state of …
Russia vows “retaliation” for YouTube blocking RT’s German channels Read More
Russian e-commerce giant Wildberries on Tuesday defended its decision to pay employees of pickup points based on their speed, a policy that triggered discontent among workers. The company owned by Russia’s richest woman Tatyana Bakalchuk is one of the largest online marketplaces in the country and has enjoyed success across the former U.S.S.R. In a …
Employees of Russian e-commerce leader Wildberries denounce pay shake-up Read More
Russian electric car drivers will be able to access toll roads at no cost starting from 2022 in a new trial experiment, the RBC news website reported Monday, citing a recently published draft government plan. The initiative, part of the new Development Concept for the Production and Use of Electric Automobile Transport signed by Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin on …
Russia to grant toll-free status to electric cars from 2022 Read More
The man accused of killing a Russian meat magnate in his sauna with a crossbow has been caught after escaping from jail, investigators said Tuesday. Alexander Mavridi, who escaped from a pre-trial detention center in the Moscow region last month, was detained in the capital Tuesday after he was detected by the city’s facial-recognition surveillance cameras, the state-run TASS …
Escaped killer of Russian meat magnate caught via facial recognition Read More
Western media news websites are being hijacked by pro-Russian trolls to spread propaganda and disinformation supporting the Kremlin, according to research published by a British university on Monday. The Crime and Research Security Institute at Cardiff University said it had unearthed evidence from 32 major news outlets in 16 countries that have been targeted via …
Russia said Thursday that Google and Apple’s refusal to remove jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny’s app ahead of elections could be seen as interference in the country’s domestic affairs. The country is holding parliamentary elections later this month, with nearly all vocal Kremlin critics including Navalny’s allies barred from running. Roskomnadzor, the Internet and telecom …
Russia accuses Apple, Google of election interference Read More
Russia’s earnings from tech exports have jumped more than threefold over the last two years, according to a new report from Moscow’s Higher School of Economics (HSE). The export sales of scientific and technology services and IP-protected products reached $4.5 billion in 2020 — up 30% from 2019, three times more than in 2018, and fifteen to twenty …
Yandex has struck a $1 billion deal to buy out U.S. ride-hailing giant Uber from a host of the pair’s joint ventures in Russia, the company announced Tuesday. Yandex and Uber first combined their ride-hailing businesses in 2017, with a deal to merge their operations in Russia and a number of other ex-Soviet countries. This partnership has seen the pair cement …
Yandex buys Uber out of food delivery partnership in $1 billion deal Read More
The relentless Russian offensive against global online platforms doesn’t show any sign of slowing down. That poses a question: Is Russia preparing to get rid of global platforms by the end of the year? Such a development now seems highly likely, given the scale of the Russian import substitution effort in technology — a campaign which is …
Russia’s drive to replace foreign technology is slowly working Read More
