ST. PETERSBURG, June 1. /TASS/. Ukraine's sanctions against Yandex make it impossible for the company to operate in the country, Yandex's General Director in Russia Alexander Shulgin told reporters.
"The situation is that Ukraine has adopted a number of sanctions that have affected our and a number of other Russian companies that make our activities in the country impossible," he said.
"We are extremely disappointed with this, because we believe that this harms primarily the Ukrainian society, the Ukrainian state, but they are forced to submit to the decision of the legislator. It is difficult to say what it will lead to, but most likely our business in Ukraine will be reduced or terminated," Shulgin added.
On May 16, Ukrainian President Pyotr Poroshenko approved the decision of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine to impose sanctions against social networks VKontakte and Odnoklassniki, as well as Mail.ru Group, Yandex companies and their services.
Russian Minister of Communications and Mass Media Nikolai Nikiforov said later that Russian IT companies that fall under Ukrainian sanctions do not need state aid.
"They do not need anybody's support, they are big players, their capitalization is estimated in billions of dollars, they are doing well in every respect," the minister said.
Russia is not going to impose retaliatory sanctions in this situation.
"We are generally against any sanctions, especially in the digital world. The Ukrainian people will give them something "in return"," the minsiter said.