The CEO of Russian internet search giant Yandex, who has fumed over the Kremlin’s war in Ukraine, reportedly fled to Israel.
Elena Bunina, who is Jewish, has no plans to return to Russia and stepped down two weeks early from her role as the CEO of Yandex, which is sometimes referred to as “Russia’s Google,” sources told Haaretz.
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“I will not return: I cannot work in a country that is at war with its neighbors,” she allegedly wrote in an internal company forum, according to Russian media outlet The Bell. The veracity of the post has not been independently verified.
Bunina’s resignation from Yandex was announced Sunday. Her tenure in that position was slated to expire April 15, but it was “her personal decision” to resign early, the company said in a statement.
She became the head of the company in 2017. Artem Savinovsky, a senior manager at the company, has been appointed as acting CEO in the wake of her resignation.
Two days after the war in Ukraine broke out, Bunina took to Facebook and said, “Am against war and blood.” The company has not faced any major sanctions from the West in response to the offensive and remains one of the top reverse image internet search tools in the United States.
She arrived in Israel in February while the war broke out, according to her unverified post obtained by The Bell. Bunina has plans to sever ties with the firm completely, sources told Haaretz.
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Bunina’s apparent departure from Russia is the latest in one of the country’s largest brain drains since the collapse of the Soviet Union in the 1990s as thousands flee in frustration over the war.
