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Digital Development Ministry may mediate in dispute between Yandex, video content owners

The officials are ready to mediate, Deputy Minister Alexei Volin said

MOSCOW, September 4. /TASS/. Russia’s Ministry of Digital Development, Communications and Mass Media is ready to mediate in the dispute between Yandex and media holdings that accuse one of the company’s services of providing links to illegally posted video content, Deputy Minister Alexei Volin said in an interview with TASS.

"The issue is only about both Yandex and big rights holders being able to agree on a model that has been developed by VKontakte. As a ministry, we strongly wish they could (do it), particularly we are ready to mediate," he said.

According to Volin, VKontakte was considered "virtually the largest unauthorized website of the Russian Federation" a couple of years ago. However, the producers promoting their products came to the negotiating table at some point and managed to reach an agreement with the network administration.

"When a common economic interest emerged they simply sat (down at the negotiating table - TASS) and reached an agreement. This interest is the traffic that is capitalized today through advertising and subscription opportunities. Yandex has the same traffic," the deputy minister siad, noting that as long as the companies file claims against each other they only take revenue hit.