Page 12 - RusRPTJul22

gave a “golden share” to a newly formed Public Interest Foundation built to “defend the Russian Federation interests”.
“Through the Public Interest Foundation, the Government of the Russian Federation is able to have a veto over a defined list of issues, such as the sale of material IP and the sale or transfer of Russian users’ personal data to foreign companies, both of which are deemed to affect Russia’s “national interest”. Yandex is also responsible for promoting state media and narratives in its search results, and deranking and removing content critical of the Kremlin, such as content related to Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine,” the EU commented.
Last month Yandex had to deny the unofficial reports that its founder and CEO Arcady Volozh was negotiating with Israeli authorities to accept a large number of his IT specialists in Israel with a possible opening of an HQ in Tel Aviv .
Previous reports already claimed that Yandex could split into a domestic unit that will operate in the heavily sanctioned economy and a rebranded relocated international unit run by former execs of the company.
Yandex is Russia’s leading developer of AI and driverless technologies. Prior to Russia's military invasion of Ukraine, Yandex was hailed as a global technological runner-up, looking to boost the monetisation of its technologies on the one hand, and leverage these technologies to support its international expansion on the other.
Veteran oilman Khudaynatov
The EU also sanctioned the veteran oilman and ex-CEO of Russia’s largest crude producer Rosneft Edouard Khudaynatov. As followed by bne IntelliNews, Khudaynatov’s companies are involved in joint ventures with Rosneft, such as Vostok Oil, and owns major oil deposits in Russia. He was already sanctioned by the US back in 2017.
Khudaynatov’s "Independent Oil and Gas Company" (NNK or Neftegazholding) is one of the largest Russian private companies and one of the top oil producers, which carries out prospecting, exploration and development of oil and gas fields, oil refining, as well as production and marketing of petroleum products. In 2015, the company revenues amounted to $2.2bn, the EU sanction report estimates.
In the last few years, Rosneft has also paid Khudaynatov $9.6bn in exchange for a company that owns an oilfield in Taimyr, the EU notes. Both Rosneft and NNK “requested and obtained from President Putin benefits in relation to their extraction activities in the Arctic”.
Thus the EU argues that Khudaynatov is associated with the CEO of Rosneft, Igor “Oil Czar” Sechin, and President Putin. “Khudaynatov and Sechin worked together in Rosneft, and their companies are jointly conducting business activities in the energy sector. He worked on Putin’s first presidential election campaign in 2000, which he managed in the Tyumen region, where he had been a regional Duma member since 1997,” the EU notes.
12 RUSSIA Country Report October 2020 www.intellinews.com