NSDC extends, toughens sanctions against Yandex - Kyiv Post

The National Security and Defense Council’s (NSDC) decision made on March 19, 2019 on the application, lifting and making changes to personal special economic and other restrictive measures (sanctions) enacted by president’s decree No. 82/2019 changes the sanctions imposed on Russia’s Yandex, introducing a requirement to annual licenses and extends them to three more years, as Kyiv POst informed. According to the updated sanction lists, the sanctions against Yandex include blocking of assets, restriction of trade operations, preventing the withdrawal of capital from Ukraine; suspension of meeting economic and financial obligations. Also, according to the new list, for Yandex, the cancellation or suspension of licenses and other permits, the receipt (availability) of which is a condition for a certain type of activity, in particular, cancellation or suspension of special permits for the use of subsoil, is introduced. In addition, Yandex was banned from participating in the privatization or leasing of state-owned property, transferring technology and rights to intellectual property. In addition, Internet service providers are prohibited from providing services for users to access 66 Yandex websites, including 10 Ukrainian Yandex.Taxi websites. At the same time, a number of websites of Ukrainian analogs of Yandex services, such as dns.yandex.ua, metrika.yandex.ua, and others are not on the list of sites banned in Ukraine anymore. Kyiv Post