Arkady Volozh, the co-founder of Russian internet giant Yandex, issued a scathing statement on Thursday condemning President Vladimir Putin's war in Ukraine.
"I am categorically against Russia's barbaric invasion of Ukraine," Volozh said in a statement shared with independent Latvia-based Russian-language news outlet Meduza and The Bell news website. "I am horrified about the fate of people in Ukraine—many of them my personal friends and relatives—whose houses are being bombed every day."
Volozh, 59, who now resides in Israel, resigned as CEO and executive director of Yandex—Russia's largest search engine—in June 2022 after the EU sanctioned him personally. Days before his statement, he faced some criticism in Russian media and on the Telegram messaging platform for apparently attempting to distance himself from Russia by describing himself on a personal website as a "Kazakhstan-born, Israeli tech entrepreneur."
"Despite the fact that I have not lived in Russia since 2014, I understand that I also share responsibility for the country's actions," Volozh said.
The businessman said that after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine began in February 2022, he focused on supporting talented Russian engineers who decided to leave Russia to start a new life abroad.
"These people are now out, and in a position to start something new, continuing to drive technological innovation. They will be a tremendous asset to the countries in which they land," Volozh said.
"There were many reasons why I had to remain silent. You can argue about the timeliness of my statement, but not about its essence. I am against the war."
Earlier this week, Russian media reported that Volozh deleted mention of Russia from his biography on his personal website. Russia, where Volozh lived and conducted business for a long time, is mentioned in his biography only in the context of IT enterprise CompTek, and Yandex is designated as "one of the largest Internet companies in Europe," Meduza reported.
In his statement, Volozh said he and his colleagues, when creating Yandex, "believed that they were building a new Russia—an open, progressive one, which is integrated into the global economy, and famous around the world not just for its natural resources."
"As time went on, it became clear that Russia is not rushing to become a part of the global world. At the same time, the pressure on the company was growing. But we did not surrender, we were trying to do everything possible despite the outside influences. Did we always manage to strike the right balance? Looking back now, it is clear that some things could have been done differently," he said.
Newsweek has contacted a representative for Volozh via email for comment.
Konstantin Sonin, a Russian-born political economist from the University of Chicago, posted on X, formerly Twitter, that for years, Volozh's company Yandex was a technological pioneer in Russia and pushed forward on many frontiers, but also "made a lot of compromises during the last decade."
"Under a constant assault of the Putin's regime, they have manipulated searches to boost propaganda and silence opposition and independent media," wrote Sonin. "After the start of the Russia-Ukraine war, thousands (up to 5 thousand!) Yandex employees left Russia. Many, including the then-CEO, spoke openly, as private people, against the criminal war."
Sonin noted that Yandex still has a lot of assets in Russia.
"For example, Yandex Taxi is Russian Uber and Gett combined. Since the beginning of the war, they are under constant siege by Putin's generals and corporate predators that Putin generals always have around. It might be that Volozh, who is residing in Israel, is foregoing whatever billions of dollars he still have in Russia," he added.
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