Internet business in Russia is a profitable enterprise worth 8.5% of GDP, according to Vladimir Putin. Russia’s president was speaking last week at the “Internet Business in Russia” forum, which was attended by top figures from Russia’s leading internet companies, including Yandex’s Arkady Volozh, Mail.ru’s Dmitry Grishin, Ozon’s Maëlle Gavet and Live Internet’s German Klimenko. Putin added …
Earlier this month, Russian search engine Yandex made big news by nominating German Gref, the head of state-owned Sberbank, to its Board of Directors. Some may see this as yet another attempt by the Kremlin to crackdown on the Internet. But it wasn’t. Yandex looks as strong as ever as one of the world’s very …
Why Russia’s government cares about Yandex so much Read More
Software development and electronic equipment production are sectors where the domestic market can return to national producers, Vladimir Putin stated last week at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum. In the technological renewal of Russia, it is essential to carry out “the largest-scale technological refitting of our enterprises in the last half century,” the president …
Putin: Russia should return the software and electronics market to domestic producers Read More
The Russian government demonstrated earlier this month that it not only knows how to obstruct Internet freedom, but also uphold it. A high-level government official who appeared to have threatened to block Twitter in Russia has been officially reprimanded. Maxim Ksenzov, the Deputy Director of Roskomnadzor, the Russian telecom market watchdog, complained on May 16 …
Russian authorities vs. Twitter: Threat of censorship over, or just over for now? Read More
Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has spoken out on a number of internet and business related issues in a wide-ranging interview with Bloomberg’s Ryan Chilcote. In the run up to the St Petersburg Economic Forum, which will go ahead without many Western CEOs warned by their governments to stay away, Medvedev accuses the West of …
Medvedev on Russia’s response to the West’s “Soviet” approach to business Read More
Financing of the Russian state’s Information Society (2011-2020) program is to be reduced by 52 billion rubles ($1.4 billion) to 1.1 trillion rubles ($32.1 trillion), according to the draft of a government decree prepared by the Ministry of Communications, Digit.ru reported last month. This is the third planned reduction in the state program in less …
The Russian-language Internet, which had remained an area of relatively free expression until recently, may soon see its landscape thoroughly reshaped. Haunted by newly resurrected images of the West as an adversary both on and offline, the federal authorities are putting together a package of new internet restrictions, which opposition-minded observers see as the prelude …
Leading U.S. IT companies Microsoft, Oracle, Hewlett-Packard and others may be cutting off services to Russian banks and companies to comply with Washington’s sanctions over Russia’s actions in Ukraine, spreading the same political anxiety that the banking sector has experienced in recent months into the Russian IT market. The multinational tech companies have already joined in the government sanctions against the banks and may completely cease cooperation with …
Microsoft, Oracle likely to stop working with Russian banks over sanctions Read More
Russia has broken into the top-50 of the World Economic Forum’s Networked Readiness Index for the first time, rising from 54th to 50th place. It maintained its position as the leading BRICS country in the index, ahead of China (62nd), Brazil (69th), South Africa (70th) and India (83rd). However, Russia was only ranked 6th among former CIS …
The Russian government is to get its own search engine. Rostelecom, the national telecom operator, is planning to launch the new service, called Sputnik, within a matter of weeks, the Russian business daily reported last week. Sputnik first came to the public’s attention in October of last year, when it became clear that Rostelecom was actively trying …
Move over Yandex – State owned telecom to launch its own search engine Read More
The Internet Initiatives Development Fund (IIDF, or FRII in Russian), a fund launched last year following a government initiative, will open a remote regional accelerator in Sevastopol, Crimea, as soon as this summer. The news was reported last week by Russian business daily Kommersant. The fund is expecting to support five to seven projects, which will …
Russia seeks to develop startup industry in Crimea Read More
With a few ill-chosen remarks, Russian President Vladimir Putin has crashed the share price of his country’s largest Internet company, the Google-beating search engine company Yandex. At the time of this writing, Yandex NV, the Dutch-registered parent company of Russia’s search giant, was 16 percent down on Nasdaq. All Russian shares were doing badly because …
