The Kremlin-Controlled Search Engine Yandex as a Tool of Foreign Propaganda

Abstract

In February 2024, after lengthy negotiations and extensive political and legal pressure, the Russian search and technology company Yandex announced the sale of its business in Russia, including its search engine, to an investment fund consisting of investors with close ties to the Kremlin. In recent years, despite Yandex's continued claims of political neutrality, journalists and academics alike have repeatedly demonstrated how Yandex's algorithms are biased and censored in favor of the interests of Russia's ruling elites. This analysis summarizes our new study under the RUSINFORM project at the University of Passau, in which we examined Yandex's role as a tool of Kremlin propaganda abroad through the case of COVID-19 conspiracy theories in Belarus. We argue that our findings can be extrapolated to a broad range of political and cultural messages that touch upon the Kremlin's foreign policy interests, as well as to other countries where Yandex is a popular search engine.