Legal

Skolkovo claims it reduces brain drain from Russia; announces new R&D center in Amsterdam

May 16, 2013

In his speech at a plenary session held in Skolkovo’s Hypercube building last month, Viktor Vekselberg, the tech hub’s president, identified the emigration of tech specialists as one of Russia’s most pressing issues. “It’s a shame to hear Russian speech everywhere when you go to Silicon Valley,” Vekselberg said. “Large [Russian] corporations need to be …

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Vkontakte founder Pavel Durov said to be creating an alternative social network in the US

April 22, 2013

The Vkontakte drama saw new developments this weekend with TV Rain’s Leonid Parfenov – one of Russia’s most renowned journalists – asserting on his Sunday program that Pavel Durov, the co-founder and CEO of Russia’s leading social network, is currently in Buffalo, NY, “obviously with no intention of returning to Russia.” The journalist linked Durov’s …

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Drama at Vkontakte: UCP claims 48% stake, CEO is involved in police investigation

April 17, 2013

United Capital Partners (UCP), a major Russian fund operating in various industries, claims to have acquired a 48% stake in the country’s leading social network Vkontakte.ru, also known as VK.com. The transaction has been put at doubt, however, by the site’s co-founder and CEO Pavel Durov. “According to the company’s charter, existing shareholders have preferential acquisition rights, and we …

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Russian writers urge readers to read legally

April 15, 2013

While the number of bookstores and hardcopy books is shrinking in Russia, the market for electronic books is booming. Unfortunately, most e-books in Russia are illegally consumed through pirated downloads. The online project Read Legally – Russia’s first social campaign of this kind – aims to alert readers to the harm that illegal downloads do authors and to …

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Music copyright: Vkontakte refuses to pay

April 10, 2013

Russia’s largest social network, VKontakte – also known as VK.com – has appealed a court order to reimburse lost profits from a pop singer’s songs hosted on its website. This is one of many scandals involving VKontakte, which the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has accused of being one of the most important players in the audio piracy …

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Moscow startup B-152 tackles personal data storage

February 15, 2017

Moscow region entrepreneur Maxim Lagutin, 23, has come up with a powerful weapon against bureaucracy in Russia: his B-152 service independently processes and prepares companies’ personal data records of customers and staff for supervisory agencies. The service is offered for an annual fee of $250–1,600 and with an optional insurance policy. The service was named …

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Russian startup Surfingbird accused of patent violation by US giant Stumbleupon

December 29, 2016

Surfingbird.ru, the first mover on Russia’s nascent web content discovery market, could become a victim of its own success, having attracted the hostile attention of global leader Stumbleupon.com. So far things have gone relatively well for Surfingbird. Launched in June 2011, the startup secured a $2.5 million series A round just a few months later, …

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Twitter acquiesces to Russia’s content-blocking while Google battles it in court

November 19, 2014

The Russian government is making headway in persuading some of the world’s leading Internet players to block content that it has labeled as illegal. Roskomnadzor, a federal agency that oversees telecoms, IT, and mass communications, announced last Friday that it has come to an understanding on the matter with Twitter. In the first three weeks of …

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Client database trafficking develops in Moscow, established e-commerce sites under threat

March 5, 2013

Last year, East-West Digital News reported on a Moscow discount site’s client database that had been leaked to crooks for $6,700. Several new cases were brought to our attention recently, suggesting there is a growing black market of client database information in Russia. Various kinds of websites are concerned, from small ones to some well-established …

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Top Skolkovo executives threatened by criminal investigation

March 4, 2013

After being exposed recently to public criticism stemming from the Russian government – including President Putin himself – the Skolkovo Foundation is now targeted by an inquiry of the Investigative Committee of Russia’s Prosecutor Office. The investigation was triggered by a recent report by Russia’s Accounts Chamber revealing several cases of questionable financial practices by …

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No legal green light for Russian use of Russian-made Nokia Siemens telecom equipment

February 28, 2013

According to Russian law, the LTE equipment developed and manufactured jointly by Nokia Siemens Network and Micran in Tomsk, Siberia, is not considered “Russian-made.” This legal definition has prevented Vainakh Telecom, a telecom operator in the Republic of Chechnya, in Russia’s Northern Caucasus area, from launching its new 4G network because the network has been built using …

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