Russia’s President Vladimir Putin (R) and Yandex CEO Arkady Volozh
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Billionaire Arkady Volozh, founder and CEO of Russian search engine Yandex, plans to challenge a ruling last week from an arbitration court in Moscow, which bans Yandex from showing results for the term “Smart Voting,” following a complaint from the Russian Federation.
The term in question–Smart Voting–is part of an effort by the Russian opposition that has formed around the once-poisoned and now jailed Alexei Navalny to challenge the likely victory of Putin’s United Russia party in the planned State Duma elections on September 19.
The Moscow court agreed this week that the Russian Federation has “exclusive rights” to the term “Smart Voting” and that the continued violation by Yandex in showing mere search results could result in the “seizure of the funds … or other property belonging to the defendant and held by him or other persons.” The specific…