> Until we know for sure that their management is really aligned with their government agenda, whatever they say, or don't say, now has zero credibility because it could be extorted from above.
Em... We know, actually.
Simply because the current management is assigned to manage Yandex by Kremlin. It's the same case with VKontakte and MailRu. We have Telegram, because Kremlin pushed Durov out of the company.
So before you deflect - maybe ask Russian people that know what was happening in Russia for the last 20 years.
It's wild how Western commenters say "we don't know for sure" when it was all public, they just didn't pay attention.
VKontakte is a great example because was literally a hostile takeover from Durov to Kremlin's oligarch Usmanov. They even accused Durov of "running over a policeman" as a threat to his arrest.
Other Russian media were consolidated as well mainly around Gazprom structures and holdings controlled by Sergey Chemezov, Putin's long time friend from his East Germany work and an ex-KGB general.
Em... We know, actually.
Simply because the current management is assigned to manage Yandex by Kremlin. It's the same case with VKontakte and MailRu. We have Telegram, because Kremlin pushed Durov out of the company.
So before you deflect - maybe ask Russian people that know what was happening in Russia for the last 20 years.