Андрей Солдатов - The Red Web - The Struggle Between Russia's Digital Dictators and the New Online Revolutionaries

The next day Yandex NV, the Dutch-registered parent company of Russia’s search giant, fell 16 percent on the NASDAQ, and American investors rushed to Moscow to talk to Yandex’s management. [5] Leonid Bershidsky, “How Putin Crashed a Russian Internet Stock,” Bloomberg , April 25, 2014, www.bloombergview.com/articles/2014–04–25/how-putin-crashed-a-russian-internet-stock . Yandex responded to Putin by saying that international investors’ participation was normal for a tech start-up and that, as a public company with a 70 percent free float, no single shareholder could exert pressure. [6] Vsevolod Pulya, “Yandex Reacts to Putin Comments About Foreign Influence as Share Price Falls,” the press release of Yandex (in Russian), Russia Beyond the Headlines , April 28, 2014, http://rbth.com/business/2014/04/28/yandex_reacts_to_putin_comments_about_foreign_influence_as_share_pri_36283.html . Yandex reminded Putin that Russia was one of the few countries where domestic Internet brands were stronger than global ones.

In early May a worried Yandex recruited to its board German Gref, CEO of the huge state-owned Sberbank and who is thought to be personally close to Putin. [7] Maxim Stulov, “Yandex Seeks Putin’s Ear With German Gref Board Appointment,” Moscow Times , May 27, 2014, www.themoscowtimes.com/business/article/yandex-seeks-putins-ear-with-german-gref-board-appointment/500969.html .

It soon was evident that Putin had not idly raised questions about Yandex. In May Andrei Lugovoi, the parliamentarian who authored legislation making it possible to block Ej.ru, Grani.ru, Kasparov.ru, and Navalny’s blog in March, announced a new initiative to force Yandex to register as a media company. [8] “Russian Lawmaker Motions to Probe Internet Giant Yandex,” RAPSI, May 15, 2014, http://rapsinews.com/news/20140515/271323235.html . It was an unmistakable threat.

In a week the Russian Investigative Committee, an increasingly powerful law enforcement body, sent representatives to Yandex.Money offices with a search warrant. [9] Jason Bush and Alissa de Carbonnel, “Russia Launches Fraud Case Against Backers of Putin Critic Navalny,” Reuters, May 23, 2014, www.reuters.com/article/2014/05/23/us-russia-navalny-idUSBREA4M05H20140523 . The pretext for the warrant was a criminal investigation conducted by the committee against Alexey Navalny—the committee alleged Navalny had stolen money he had gathered via the online service Yandex, money intended for his campaign for Moscow mayor the previous autumn. But the raid was a shocking development and went way beyond the reasons cited for the search warrant. Yandex was one of the most famous Russian companies and inspired pride in Russia. Its profitability came not from oil and gas, the traditional sources of Russian wealth, but through building a business based on technology, and here, in this field, Russian engineers successfully competed with American companies—Yandex had a bigger share of the Russian search market than Google.

Many people felt uneasy about Putin’s eagerness to target the pride of the Russian tech business. Russian high-tech companies often had foreigners on their boards—it was a ticket to world markets and foreign investments, and for years it signaled success. Now the Russian president had made foreign board members look suspicious, almost as if they were agents of a foreign state.

The campus of Kaspersky Lab headquarters in Moscow fills two modern semitransparent buildings, surrounded by green lawns and the shimmering surface of a nearby reservoir. The tableau suggests nothing more than an ambition to be like Google or Apple—a big multinational, respected everywhere. Kaspersky Lab is one of Russia’s most recognizable brands. On the day Irina went there in May 2014, children frolicked on the grass in front of the company’s green and red corporate logo. Andrey Yarnikh, head of government relations, said it was the day employees could bring children to the office.

While Irina was walking around with Andrey Yarnikh, a big black SUV braked suddenly behind them. A man of medium height and graying wavy hair, wearing a bright shirt and jeans, jumped out of the car and approached them. It was Eugene Kaspersky, founder and CEO of Kaspersky Lab.

“Hi,” he greeted Yarnikh and shook his hand.

“Hi Genya!” said Yarnikh. And then Kaspersky disappeared even faster than he emerged. [10] Kaspersky refused to give an interview with the authors.

Yarnikh explained that Kaspersky didn’t like formality either in conversation or clothes, and in the early years of the company, when the laboratory was a relatively small entity, he used to kiss all female employees and shake hands with every man he met.

But this placid surface concealed anxieties behind the glass walls of the headquarters. Putin’s remarks about foreigners at Yandex made its way through Kaspersky Lab like a bolt of lightning. Although based in Moscow, Kaspersky boasts that 400 million people worldwide are protected by its cyber-threat and antivirus products. At one point a foreign investment firm, General Atlantic, owned part of Kaspersky Lab. [11] “UPDATE 2—Kaspersky to Buy out US Investors, Rules Out IPO,” Reuters, February 3, 2012, www.reuters.com/article/2012/02/03/kaspersky-idUSL2E8D3ETO20120203 . And in February 2014 Kaspersky had established an international advisory board and recruited several Americans, including Howard Schmidt, former cyber adviser to Presidents Bush and Obama. If having Americans involved in an Internet company was going to be a problem, then Kaspersky, like Yandex, would not be immune to scrutiny.

Kaspersky Lab has offices everywhere, from Australia to Germany, South Africa to the United States. Just like Yandex, Kaspersky Lab is registered abroad, in the United Kingdom. [12] About Kaspersky Lab: “Today Kaspersky Lab is the world’s largest privately held vendor of endpoint protection solutions, with a holding registered in the United Kingdom,” www.kaspersky.com/about . And just as Volozh built Yandex, when Kaspersky built up his company, he didn’t exploit government connections and has not been promoted by the state.

Kaspersky was a complex and sometimes obscure figure in the world of the Russian Internet. When the first digital attacks were made on the media, he looked the other way. But then he came to the rescue of Novaya Gazeta . At other times he took positions that showed sympathy for the Kremlin approach to the Internet. For example, in February 2011 Kaspersky Lab joined the Safe Internet League, an Orthodox-dominated NGO that promotes Internet censorship under the pretext of protecting children from harmful content. [13] Kaspersky Lab corporate news, “Laboratoria Kasperskogo prisoedinyaetsa k rabote Ligi Bezopasnogo Interneta” [Kaspersky Lab Joins the Safe Internet League], Kaspersky, February 8, 2011, www.kaspersky.ru/news?id=207733419 . The League advanced weird ideas of creating “white lists” of sites approved in advance by them, and cyber druzhinas (from the Russian word that means the feudal prince’s armed guardsmen) patrolling the Internet. [14] “The Cyberguard,” Safe Internet League, www.ligainternet.ru/en/liga/activity-cyber.php . The League has been working closely with Roskomnadzor. [15] The primary backer of the League is businessman Konstantin Malofeev, a prominent Orthodox business and political leader who has enjoyed increasing influence since 2012 as conservative and Orthodox beliefs have grown in popularity. In 2014 Malofeev was put under sanctions by the EU and Canada, as Ukraine’s government accused him of financing the rebels in eastern Ukraine on behalf of the Russian government. Both Alexander Borodai, the former prime minister of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic, and Igor Strelkov, formerly one of the main commanders of the rebel forces, are ex-Malofeev employees. For details, see Courtney Weaver, “Konstantin Malofeev, Marshall Capital Partners,” Financial Times , September 8, 2013, www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/569e533e-051c-11e3–9e71–00144feab7de.html#axzz3UGtNNZEy , and Joshua Keating, “God’s Oligarch,” Slate , October 20, 2014, www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/foreigners/2014/10/konstantin_malofeev_one_of_vladimir_putin_s_favorite_businessmen_wants_to.single.html .