Co-founder of Yandex erases Russia from his biography and reflects on Kazakhstan

Arkady Volozh, an entrepreneur and co-founder of Russian IT giant Yandex no longer mentions Russia in his biography and highlights that he was born in Kazakhstan. He left the company in 2022 when the West targeted him with its anti-Russian sanctions.

What happened? The official website of Arkady Volozh no longer mentions Russia, a country where his core business was located. According to the biography of the co-founder of Yandex, he is an Israeli tech entrepreneur who was born in Kazakhstan.

«Arkady Volozh is a Kazakhstan-born, Israeli tech entrepreneur, computer scientist, investor, and philanthropist. Since 2015, Volozh has been living in Israel, focusing mostly on developing and exploring new technologies,» the information on the website says.

What does Volozh have in common with Kazakhstan? Volozh was born in 1964 in Atyrau, Kazakhstan. In 1981 he graduated from the National School of Physics and Mathematics in Almaty. Many other prominent figures graduated from the same school, including Ilya Segalovich (another co-founder of Yandex), Vyacheslav Kim, Timur Kulibaev, Karim Masimov, Yerbolat Dosaev, Mukhtar Dzhakishev and Kairat Kelimbetov.

In 1986, Volozh graduated from the Gubkin Russian State University of Oil and Gas in Moscow with a degree in applied mathematics. In 1997, he officially presented the Yandex search engine to the world. Over the period from 2000 to 2014, Volozh served as CEO of Yandex. Later, he stepped down as CEO and became the head of the Yandex Group with a seat on the company board.

Why has the West targeted Volozh with sanctions?

In June 2022, the European Union put Volozh on the sanctions list, even though he quit all his positions in the company shortly before the decision by the Europeans. One of the key reasons for sanctions against Volozh was the company policy, which has been promoting state media in Russia and deleting everything that contradicts what the Kremlin says. On December 30, 2022, Volozh announced he quit the company in his farewell letter to the staff of Yandex.

The EU has frozen all assets and banking accounts belonging to individuals and entities on the sanctions list. Moreover, the EU strictly prohibits its citizens and businesses from having business with such counteragents.