MOSCOW, March 19. /ITAR-TASS/. Mail.Ru Group and Yandex, the two biggest companies of the Russian Internet, have started updating their map services to designate Crimea as part of Russia, press services told Itar-Tass on Wednesday.

“We are dealing with technical aspects [of map updating]. We need time,” the PR Director of the Russian internet group Mail.Ru, Ksenia Chabanenko, said, without specifying the date of update completion.

Yandex, Russia’s biggest search engine, would change the Yandex.Maps service when updated next time, without specifying the exact date.

“State borders in Yandex.Maps are currently marked as of March 15, 2014. Changes will be introduced during one of the next updates”, the press service said.

"We are closely following the latest developments and discussing different options of providing information on maps considering that we work in several countries at the same time - not only in Russia and Ukraine, but also in Belarus, Kazakhstan and Turkey,” the press service said.

The Russian Office of Google, Russia's second-biggest search site behind Yandex, refused to comment on the issue. The press service of Russia’s Microsoft made no comments either, explaining that the company waits for the answer from the Head Office.

On March 18, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Head of the Crimean State Council Vladimir Konstantinov, Crimean Prime Minister Sergei Aksyonov and Sevastopol Mayor Alexei Chalyi signed a treaty under the provisions of which the Republic of Crimea is deemed accepted to the Russian Federation.

“As of the day of admission of the Republic of Crimea to the Russian Federation two new constituent territories of the federation will be set up - the Republic of Crimea and the federal city of Sevastopol,” the treaty says.

Practical application of the treaty began as of the date of signing and it will take legal effect as of the date of ratification.

The treaty spells out a transition period that will last through to January 1, 2015, in the course of which the problems pertaining to the integration of new constituent territories in Russia’s economic, financial, lending, and legal systems will be resolved.