Russia’s main web agency Yandex on Tuesday (23 August) mentioned it had agreed to promote its information aggregator and yandex.ru homepage to rival VK in a transfer more likely to additional restrict Russians’ entry to unbiased media.

The all-share deal, wherein Yandex will purchase 100% of meals supply service Supply Membership, marks a big shift in Russia’s web panorama, with Yandex successfully passing management over distribution of on-line content material to a state-controlled agency.

VK already runs Russia’s largest social community, VKontakte, the Russian model of Fb, whereas Moscow has blocked entry to some international platforms, together with Meta Platforms’ Fb and Instagram.

Russia’s years-long suppression of unbiased media intensified sharply after Moscow despatched troops into Ukraine on 24 February, passing a regulation banning what it calls “false data” concerning the armed forces and quashing many organisations’ capacity to broadcast freely.

“The board and administration of Yandex have concluded that the pursuits of the corporate’s stakeholders…are greatest served by pursuing the strategic exit from its media companies and shifting to a concentrate on different applied sciences and companies,” Yandex mentioned in an announcement.

Nasdaq-listed Yandex, sometimes called “Russia’s Google”, has lately complied with Moscow’s calls for below menace of fines over which publications’ tales can characteristic on its information aggregator, drawing criticism over the impression on media freedom.

Moscow has not blocked entry to most foreign-language media, which stay freely accessible in Russia and on Yandex, however search outcomes do limit entry to any websites that communications regulator Roskomnadzor has banned, lots of that are Russian-language unbiased media.

In February, Yandex began warning Russian customers in search of details about occasions in Ukraine of unreliable data on-line.

A former head of Yandex Information, Lev Gershenzon, on 1 March described Yandex as a key component in hiding details about the battle in Ukraine. Yandex has denied being complicit in censorship.

“We’re shopping for our freedom,” a supply near Yandex mentioned. “This enterprise had been such a weight on our toes.

“This can allow us to do our enterprise considerably depoliticised, virtually fully depoliticised.”

Search shift

Yandex dominates Russia’s on-line search market with a share of round 62%, in accordance with its personal analytics device Yandex Radar. Google accounts for about 36%, with VK’s mail.ru at lower than 1%.

That stronghold over the net search market will doubtless proceed.

Yandex.ru shows a bundle of reports tales under its search bar, adopted by a rolling stream of content material. The corporate’s entry level for search will now develop into ya.ru, a website that resembles Google’s homepage and is already widespread with those that desire uncluttered searches.

Yandex.ru, full with Information and Zen, will probably be renamed dzen.ru, Yandex mentioned, with VK to take over improvement and management over “content material, feel and look”.

The deal, signed on Monday, requires anti-monopoly approval and is anticipated to shut within the coming months, Yandex mentioned.