![]() “These sanctions also target those who have a leading role in disinformation and propaganda that accompany President Putin’s war against Ukrainian people. “We are adding to our sanctions list even more oligarchs and regime-affiliated elites, their families and prominent businesspeople, which are involved in economic sectors providing a substantial source of revenue to the regime,” the EU noted. (The board said it was “shocked and surprised” to learn that he was named under EU sanctions.) That announcement was followed by another, this time from Yandex: Khudaverdyan was stepping down as the deputy CEO and executive member of the board of Yandex NV - the company’s Netherlands-based parent that is publicly traded on Nasdaq. (Gershenzon, now based in Berlin, left Yandex in 2013, according to his LinkedIn profile.) Citing accusations by a former head of Yandex’s news operation, Lev Gershenzon, the EU highlighted the role Yandex News plays in spreading Kremlin propaganda. ![]() Khudaverdyan was added by the EU yesterday to its list of individuals facing sanctions over Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine. The news division is already being called out by EU regulators via sanctions connected to a (now former) key Yandex executive, Tigran Khudaverdyan. ![]() The rumors come as pressure has been mounting inside the EU to sanction Yandex. Yandex declined to comment on the reports. Sources familiar with the matter confirm to TechCrunch that discussions to sell the division - which includes Yandex News, a news aggregator, and Yandex Zen, a blogging platform linked to a recommender engine - are “in the last stages.” They were unable to confirm a timeline for the potential sale. Yesterday Russian press reported that Yandex - a local giant often called the “Russian Google” - is in negotiations to sell its media division, with Russian social networking giant VK named as a potential buyer. Putin’s regime continues to tighten its grip on how information on the war in Ukraine is shared in Russia, and in the wake of that, tech giants in the country - which, like Facebook, Google and Twitter, are also major players in the media sphere - are starting to restructure their media assets.
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