“Yandex” has decided to close offices in Kiev and Odessa because of the sanctions, reported “Interfax” a company representative Ochir Mandzhikov.

“Company “Yandex.Ukraine” included in the sanctions list, and can not actually carry on business in the territory of Ukraine. In particular, all company accounts are blocked and we can’t pay staff salaries, he said. – So we made the decision to close the offices in Kiev and Odessa, our team will offer to continue working in other offices “Yandex” in different countries”.

Previously this decision was made Mail.ru.

As reported, the security Service of Ukraine on Monday raided the offices of “Yandex. Ukraine” in Kiev and Odessa in the framework of criminal proceedings for treason . SBU claims that the management of the company illegally collected, accumulated and passed in Russia the personal data of Ukrainian citizens, in particular, personal data, occupation, lifestyle, dwelling, residence, work, leisure, sources and amounts of income, phone numbers, email addresses and social media accounts. It is noted that among the citizens, information about which was transferred to Russia, there is law enforcement and special bodies, members of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, other units involved in the antiterrorist operation in the East of Ukraine, employees of bodies of state power and control.

The company had previously denied the allegation that employees of “Yandex” gave personal information about the Ukrainian users to Russian security services.

As reported, President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko the decree of may 15, enacted the NSDC decision of 28 April 2017 “On the use of personal special economic and other restrictive measures (sanctions)”. This decision introduced among other things, sanctions against social networks “Vkontakte” and “Classmates”, as well as companies Mail.ru Group, “Yandex” and their services. Access to all services of “Yandex” and Mail.ru banned for three years. Under the sanctions have fallen also a number of major Russian IT companies (1C, “Kaspersky Lab”, “Antigen”, etc.)