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Comment by tpmx | Hacker News Reader

I was super impressed when I interacted with Yandex ML engineering people like a decade ago on a conf call - they were trying to sell us their services. Very smart and very clearly outward-looking. Haven't followed the company in detail since. Wonder what happened to them. [removed inaccurate details]

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> One wonders if this is revenge from the regime.

It's not a revenge of the the regime. A decade ago it was a different company, now they all are completely under the cap of FSB, it's basically a Lubyanka filial. It's serfdom all over again, not that strange it got leaked by some unhappy employee.

Reading up on the current situation with the company - yeah, I think you're right. :/

When you're judging them, think about the space of possibilities as well. Is any example of a Russian business of such volume not tied to the government?

I mean they were pretty much forced to sell business to the government recently. Coincidence? Maybe…

what business and to what government? are you in your dreams?

i guess it's about recent exchange of their news service to vk. not literaly sold to the government

https://techcrunch.com/2022/09/12/yandex-news-zen-vk-sale-co...

Its not only news service. Few services are left under the Yandex INTL. What are the services - ... you gotta know... they haven't published a proper disclosure, only couple of press-releases, which is alarming for a still part-public traded co.

I remember some sources that they've sold ALL their media services, and the INTL is only left with services like taxi and delivery.

A lot of really great technology and a lot of really great people.

There are shitheads everywhere.

Is this well known? Seems likely the leak was done by an anti-Putin employee or ex employee in revenge/protest against the war if yes.

I saw the forum post in this thread claiming leak happened back in 2022. This aligns well with the massive PII leak they had before so I would say there is a chance.

Yandex was probably one of the best and the most innovative Russian companies, and attracted the best workforce. But it cooperated with Putin's regime long before the war. It censored opposition narratives in its search results and promoted pro-Putin content [1]. It continues to promote Russian propaganda even today (try any Ukraine-related search query in Russian). Now it's under the oversight of a Putin's man, Alekei Kudrin [2].

Sadly, Yandex is not a neutral company and is just another weapon in Putin's hands.

[1]: https://misinforeview.hks.harvard.edu/article/a-story-of-non...

[2]: https://t.me/AlekseiKudrin/48

How do you think a company that has all its business in Russia should act?

Don't assume that just because people are highly educated and intelligent, they will be on the "good" side.

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