Starting January 1, foreign companies selling e-content via the Internet in Russia are required to register private offices in Russia, submit information on their sales in the country, and pay a 18% value-added tax. The tax applies to the following types of content or services: selling and giving access to e-books, audio and visual content, images …
Moscow is one of five cities in the world where people have begun installing subcutaneous implants for travel on public transport. The first Russian cyborgs, however, complain about the limits of using their new devices in everyday life. During a visit to Russia last year, Dr. Patrick Kramer, a famous German biohacker and CEO of …
Russian cyborgs among us: Technology that literally gets under your skin Read More
Last week the Internet Initiatives Development Fund (IIDF, or FRII in Russian, Russia’s leading startup fund) announced that it injected 150 million rubles, or around $2.5 million, in Multikubik in exchange for a minority stake. Also known as Cinemood, this Moscow-based startup has developed mini cinema projectors for children. The funding will go to manufacturing, R&D and international expansion, with the USA as the primary …
Russian startup raises $2.5 million to provide American families with next-gen home cinema Read More
Earlier this month GeoPost, a leading player in the European courier, express and parcel market, announced a plan to merge its fully-owned Russian subsidiary DPD Russia with another local service provider, SPSR Express. The French group simultaneously announced a partnership with Italy’s BRT and an acquisition in Brazil. GeoPost expects the Russia deal, which is subject to approval by …
DailyMotion, a New York-headquartered video sharing platform and a property of the French group Vivendi, is likely to be banned soon in Russia, following a ruling by a Moscow court. The video hosting site was sued by TV channel Pyatnitsa, a property of Gazprom Media, for having provided access to proprietary contents without the rights owner’s consent. Pyatnitsa’s claim referred to …
DailyMotion to be banned in Russia due to copyright infringements Read More
A top cyber-security specialist in Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) has been arrested on charges of treason, the Kommersant newspaper reported Wednesday. Sergei Mikhailov, deputy chief at the FSB’s Information Security Center (CDC), stands accused of receiving money from “foreign organizations,” Kommersant reported, citing unnamed FSB sources. Mikhailov has been detained in pre-trial detention since December 2016, …
Top Russian cybersecurity agent to face treason charges Read More
Ru-Net, an international venture fund with Russian roots, has just participated in a $55 million Series D funding round for Practo, an Indian startup that helps consumers locate doctors and healthcare information. As reported by TechCrunch, the investment was led by Tencent, the Chinese company which led Practo’s previous $90 million round last year. Also participating in the deal were RSI …
Ru-Net invests in Indian e-medicine startup Practo Read More
Trump’s big day was headline news in Russia, one of the few countries on Earth that overwhelmingly supported the Republican’s candidacy even when it was in its infancy. Russian jokesters on Twitter certainly had their eye on President Trump’s inauguration speech, which more than a few Internet users compared to Communist rhetoric popular during the …
Russian Internet users say Trump gave a wonderful, communist inauguration speech Read More
On Wednesday Facebook banned RT, the Kremlin-funded Russian TV channel formerly known as Russia Today, from posting articles, photos, and videos to Facebook. Announced after RT allegedly ran a pirated stream of Obama’s last press conference, the ban was intially scheduled to be lifted at on Saturday, the day after Trump’s inauguration. But the ban lasted no longer than 20 hours. …
Facebook bans then unbans Russia’s RT prior to Trump inauguration Read More
Sberbank, Russia’s national savings bank, and Alibaba Group are in discussions to create a joint venture that would include the Chinese group’s existing cross-border e-commerce businesses in Russia and neighboring countries. Among these businesses is AliExpress.ru, a B2C marketplace that has asserted itself as the largest e-commerce platform in Russia, far ahead of its foreign or even …
Sberbank in talks with Alibaba to launch universal e-commerce platform in Russia Read More
Skolkovo resident Cloudike (ASD Technologies) has entered the Indonesian market with the launch of its mobile cloud service on the country’s mobile carrier Indosat Ooredoo. The network’s customers will now be able to use incloud to upload, download and share files on a personal online cloud-based storage with enhanced features such as text message capabilities. …
Russian cloud service provider Cloudike enters Indonesian market Read More
500 Startups, a prolific US seed fund and accelerator investing globally, has run into some setbacks in its international-fund ambitions, Wall Street Journal reported earlier this month. The fund has pulled back from investing in China, put its Nordics and India fundraising on hold, and dropped plans for a Russia and Eastern Europe fund. Members of …
