Yandex founder Arkady Volozh says he hired security detail after Putin hinted at Prigozhin’s demise in a cryptic response to his anti-war remarks

In a new interview with Bloomberg, Yandex founder Arkady Volozh reveals that he hired a personal security detail for the first time after Vladimir Putin responded to his criticism of the Ukraine war. In August 2023, the Russian president publicly described the tech entrepreneur as “a talented person” — the same language he’d recently used when commenting on the violent death of mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin, who perished with several others in a plane crash under suspicious circumstances, two months after his brief but shocking armed insurrection.

“Although I haven’t lived in Russia since 2014, I understand that I bear some share of responsibility for the country’s actions [in Ukraine],” Volozh said in August 2023 — the first time he commented on the full-scale invasion since February 2022. “God bless him, and may he enjoy good health in Israel. He’s a talented person, but people generally should be grateful to their country,” Russia’s president said when asked about Volozh’s remarks. 

“Not so comfortable. I try not to think about it,” Volozh told Bloomberg, recalling Putin’s response.

Following the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, Volozh came under E.U. sanctions based on allegations that Yandex was directly involved in spreading Russian military propaganda. European leaders lifted these sanctions after Volozh’s anti-war statements. In 2024, Yandex was restructured into two companies: a Russian business that fell under state control and a foreign enterprise, which then changed its name to Nebius. Volovh now heads Nebius. 

The plane crash that killed Prigozhin occurred exactly two months after his failed armed insurrection. According to The Wall Street Journal’s sources, Nikolai Patrushev (who at the time served as secretary of Russia’s National Security Council) orchestrated the crash with Putin’s tacit approval. Officially, Russian authorities have yet to disclose the cause of the crash.