The US government is providing support to Netflix — which became available in Russia in January 2016 — as part of an effort to “get into every television” in the world, Russia’s culture minister Vladimir Medinsky stated in an interview with Rambler News Service (RNS). Netflix has developed its business with the support of the US government, …
The billionaire Evgeny Prigozhin is demanding that Yandex delete from its search results an article about the Internet Research Agency, better known as Russia’s “troll factory.” Several news outlets, including the newspaper Novaya Gazeta, have published articles claiming that Prigozhin is the brains and money behind the troll factory. The billionaire has also demanded that Yandex …
Russia’s proposed bitcoin ban will hinder blockchain technology’s development in the Russian Federation, according to German Gref, chairman of the board at Sberbank, Russia’s national savings bank, and former economic development minister, speaking at the Skolkovo business school Saturday, according to Lenta.ru, a Moscow-based news site. Gref said blockchain is a new web technology comparable …
Last month, a mother living in Moscow felt bad for her 11-year-old son. She felt so bad that she turned to Facebook, where she appealed to her friends with a small request. It seems the poor boy was being teased at school because he didn’t get any likes on a page he meticulously maintains on the Russian social network Vkontakte. Wanting …
Stepan Saveliev, Russia’s 11-year-old Internet king Read More
Pussy Riot punk performer Nadya Tolokonnikova is looking for a new audience — readers and, ideally, financial backers who can turn her two-year-old news website into a full-blown contender on Russia’s media scene. MediaZona, the website she helped found in 2014 with a focus on criminal justice news, has about 2.2 million visitors a month …
Pussy Riot founder seeks to assert her site on Russia’s online media scene Read More
Touch Bank, a digital-only bank launched last year in Russia, already claims 70,000 clients across the country, with the customer base growing at an average rate of 10,000 new customers a month. While initial launch products for the Russian market were credit card, cash loan, deposit account, and current account, as well as a cash-back loyalty program, the bank has gradually started …
Touch Bank CEO Andrei Kozliar on how to create a digital-only bank in Russia Read More
For two years, SpyEye was the world’s most destructive piece of malware targeting banks and financial institutions, infecting more than 50 million PCs and causing estimated damage of $1 billion. The malware, created by a young Russian hacker who liked to brag of its malevolence, was secretly installed on victims’ computers, spread via spam emails and malicious websites, and worked by silently …
Inside SpyEye: How the Russian hacker behind the billion-dollar malware was taken down Read More
In an article published yesterday in the Kommersant Vlast weekly, the head of Russia’s Investigative Committee Alexander Bastrykin has proposed a range of measures to give a “strong, appropriate and balanced response” to the information war that he claims the US and its allies are waging against Russia. The measures include imposing new restrictions on the Internet: Bastrykin …
With a montly trading volume exceeding $1.6 billion in 2015, B2B-Center.ru, a major Russian electronic trading platform, serves more than 260,000 clients from 120 countries. Its CEO Alexey Degtyarev told East-West Digital News about this little-known, but huge market, and the impact of the crisis. He also commented on B2B-Center’s international expansion, following a recent …
Speaking at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona in late February, Pavel Durov looked like a man in control. Dressed all in black — a nod to the character of Neo in the film The Matrix — Durov strode across the stage assertively. Like Neo, he was a programmer on a mission. Durov had come to Barcelona to announce that Telegram, the encrypted messaging service, had gathered 100 million monthly users and was gaining an impressive 350,000 …
How Telegram became the Durov brothers’ weapon against surveillance Read More
Which Russian startups may be interesting to international investors? Are there any positive trends on the Russian venture market? What do you expect from the tech sector in 2016? ArcticStartup has asked these and other questions to three Russian investors: business angel Alexey Menn, Life.SREDA’s Vladislav Solodkiy, and Maxfield Capital’s Alexander Turkot. Their professional background …
This year might be a good one for selling to investors, believe Russian VCs Read More
In January 2016, Forbes released a list of 300 young leaders, creative inventors and daring entrepreneurs in 10 sectors, including technology, science, healthcare, media, and others. RBTH learned more about the six young Russian tech prodigies mentioned there. Dmitry Aksenov, 23 years old, co-founder, DigitalGenious The startup DigitalGenious, founded by Mr. Aksenov, carries on human-like conversation with …
