Google closes its St. Petersburg development center, relocates staff to offices outside Russia

Google has closed its development center in St. Petersburg. According to a statement from the company, the change is part of “ordinary optimization processes,” which are underway not just in Russia, but also in Finland, Sweden, and the United States. Employees at Google’s St. Petersburg development office have not been dismissed, and “continue to work on projects at other offices,” the company says.

The real estate company that rented Google its office space in St. Petersburg told the news agency TASS that Google vacated the space two months ago, in August. “They took their employees to different countries,” the real estate company’s head said. “To Switzerland, America, and Germany.” 

It’s unclear how many people worked at Google’s office in St. Petersburg, but the workspace did occupy two floors of the building.

Google opened its St. Petersburg office in 2006. It was the company’s second development center in Russia. Earlier that year, it opened its first such office in Moscow. 

In December 2014, Bloomberg reported that the company was planning to close its development offices in Russia and relocate its Russian employees. The decision was apparently motived by Russia’s economic recession and a new Russian law that requires websites to store user data on servers located inside Russia.

Google has not disclosed any plans to shutter its remaining Russian office in Moscow.