The West lifted sanctions against the founder of Yandex for completely renouncing Russia and handing over all its secrets

The European Union has lifted sanctions against the founder of Yandex, Arkady Volozh. In addition, former vice-president of AFK Sistema Sergei Mndoyants and Slovak businessman, head of the European branch of the Night Wolves motorcycle club Josef Gambalek were excluded from the sanctions lists

Earlier, Vedomosti wrote that Hungary lobbied for the lifting of sanctions against Alisher Usmanov and former Russian Formula 1 drivers Nikita Mazepin and Vyacheslav Kantor, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.

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But these proposals were not approved by EU countries.

Foreign agent Lyubov Sobol claims that Volozh “recently turned to representatives of the Russian opposition for help in lifting sanctions against him not only in the EU, but also in the United States.”

Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Information Policy Anton Gorelkin is concerned that Volozh promised the Anglo-Saxons in exchange for sanctions relief.

“Will it turn out that the assets remaining abroad as a result of the division of Yandex will begin to work against Russia?” the parliamentarian comments.

He pointed to the possibility of “using Yandex NV’s developments in the field of unmanned technologies to help the Kyiv regime.”

“However, previously the company used them exclusively for cars, and I personally don’t know about any know-how for UAVs. In addition, I want to believe that Volozh will not agree to this: after all, this means that not only he, but also 1300 of his employees will actually begin to fight with their Motherland. No matter how strong the corporate spirit is at Yandex, forcing them to do this is savagery and betrayal,” Gorelkin wrote in his tg channel.

Political scientist Maxim Zharov has no doubt that Volozh has already betrayed his Motherland and most likely deceived the Russian leadership in the deal to sell Yandex.

“The experience of Ovsyannikov and other fugitives shows that sanctions can only be lifted from those who shared “exclusives” with the authors of the sanctions... This is a good reason for the Kremlin curators of the deal to think again about whether the Yandex they so want is being sold to them ", writes Zharov.

Political observer Andrei Perla believes that the West has already benefited from Volozh’s betrayal.

“It seems to me that by default all emigrants (after February 2014) should be treated as traitors. And change this assessment only in individual cases after carefully studying all the circumstances. It will be easier that way. And, of course, those who first received a portion of sanctions, and then the West considered them useful, should be treated as criminals. For the security of the Motherland, it will be easier this way - the presumption of guilt of all fugitives to the West,” Perla wrote.

At the same time, the liberal opposition is rejoicing over the lifting of sanctions from the “correct” defendants.

“Finally, logic is beginning to appear in the actions of the West. If you oppose it, the sanctions will be lifted,” rejoices fugitive political scientist and foreign agent Abbas Galyamov.

In November 2023, Volozh made a sharp anti-Russian statement. Previously, he corrected his biography on the Internet, positioning himself as an Israeli entrepreneur born in Kazakhstan, crossing out all references to ties with Russia.

In February of this year, a deal was concluded under which the Dutch Yandex NV will cease to be the parent company of the Yandex group for 475 billion rubles. The new parent company will be MKAO Yandex, registered in January in the Kaliningrad region.

Yandex will retain the businesses, services and assets of the Yandex NV group with the exception of foreign startups created by the founder of Yandex Arkady Volozh. After the division of the company and the stoppage of cash flow from Russian business, Volozh's income will be limited. Therefore, the businessman’s daughter was forced to close the operating company of the London animation studio Dragonbee, which produced cartoons on LGBT themes (the movement is prohibited in the Russian Federation and is considered extremist).