Russian Google founder criticizes Kremlin's 'barbaric' war against Ukraine

Arkady Volozh has become one of the few Russian businessmen to publicly criticize Putin's war with Ukraine. Credit: Mikhail Svetlov/Getty Images Europe

The co-founder of one of Russia's largest tech companies has issued a rare critique of Vladimir Putin's «barbaric» invasion of Ukraine.

Arkady Volozh, who founded Yandex in 1997, defied the Kremlin with an unusually candid statement that he was “against the war.”

“Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is barbaric, and I am totally against it,” said Mr. Volozh, who has tried to distance himself from his Russian roots and now lives in Israel.

«I am horrified by the fate of people in Ukraine — many of them my personal friends and relatives — whose houses are bombed every day.»

His comments make him one of the few Russian businessmen who dared to publicly criticize the war.

It also contrasts him with the Kremlin, which has been brutally cracking down on dissent over the past year and a half.

Over the past few years, a number of dissidents in Russia and abroad have been the victims of fatal accidents under mysterious circumstances, and high-ranking officials inside the country have been imprisoned on trumped-up charges.

Mr. Volozh left Yandex last June after he came under EU economic sanctions.

who came under EU sanctions last year is trying to distance himself from the Russian government. Photo: SERGEY GUNEEV/AFP

Brussels said Mr. Volozh, who met face-to-face with Putin in 2017 and 2020, supported the war against Ukraine «materially or financially.»

In 2017, he invited Mr. Putin to Yandex headquarters in Moscow, where he showed him the company's new self-driving car and AI products.

In a statement Thursday, he said he was helping «talented Russian engineers» to leave the country «to start a new life.» , stating that he «had reasons for remaining silent during this long process.»

The entrepreneur is trying to play down his 25 years as a chief executive of a Russian business, calling himself an Israeli of «Kazakh origin» and «Yandex» as «one of the largest Internet companies in Europe.»

Yandex. is a tech giant in Russia and has been accused of helping the country's government stifle free speech and enforce mass surveillance.

Its products include a Russian-language search engine, a music streaming service, and a gaming platform.

Nasdaq officials suspended trading of their shares in the US index in February 2022, just after the invasion. Its market cap at the time was $6.6bn (£5.2bn).

Mr Volozh's spokesman declined to comment further. Yandex did not respond to a request for comment.

Russia's recent reputation for politicians and businessmen who oppose the Putin government or the war in Ukraine shows no signs of abating nearly 18 months after the invasion.

Ilya Sachkov, the 37-year-old founder of cybersecurity firm Group-IB, was sentenced to 14 years in prison in July after Moscow accused him of handing over US state secrets.

His the arrest in 2021 prompted the exit of Group-IB, once considered one of Russia's foremost technology companies, from the country.

Putin's political opponents have also been jailed for peacefully opposing their regime.

< p>Vladimir Kara-Murza, an opposition politician and journalist who grew up in northwest London, was sent to a maximum security colony for 25 years in April.