Russia’s largest internet company is to sell off its news and blogging services to the state-controlled social media platform VK in a deal that will increase direct state control over the news many Russians see online.
The deal for the Yandex news aggregator and Zen blogging platform, as well the sale of the main page, yandex.ru, will probably result in it being transformed into a social-media-style news feed curated by the Gazprom-owned VK, whose chief executive is the son of a Kremlin official tasked with integrating the occupied territories of Ukraine.
