Yandex has reportedly started evacuating its Minsk office, following raid by armed police

The Russian tech giant Yandex has reportedly started evacuating its office in Minsk, since armed men raided the premises on August 13, two sources familiar with the situation told The Bell. The company’s press office says the Minsk bureau currently employs roughly 300 people, all of whom are now working remotely. “Some of these staff have left the city,” spokespeople clarified.

According to The Bell’s sources, Yandex has removed just a few employees from Belarus and transferred others who refused to leave the country to more remote cities away from the capital. The company has reportedly activated a situation room to assist with local security concerns and provide legal aid to staff who need it.

On August 13, in the mayhem of early opposition protests against the Lukashenko regime, unidentified, armed men in Minsk raided the shared offices of Yandex and Uber, trapping several employees on the premises. Yandex was later informed that these people were officers from the Belarusian Interior Ministry’s Main Directorate for Combating Organized Crime and Corruption. The authorities never explained the grounds for the raid and the officers seized no documents or equipment, Yandex told Meduza.