The billionaire Arkady Volozh, known as the architect of "Russia's Google," valued at 30 billion at its peak, has long had an apolitical public persona. "I don't have friction with the state," Volozh told WIRED in 2017. "Just like I don't have friction with the weather. What happens if it's raining? I need to build a service to avoid the rain."

Arkady Volozh, the billionaire cofounder of Russia's biggest internet company, was removed from the EU sanctions list today, clearing the way for his return to the world of international tech. On Tuesday a spokesperson for the European Council confirmed to WIRED that the Yandex cofounder was among three people whose sanctions were lifted this week. Volozh, 60, was initially included on the EU sanctions list in June 2023, following Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. "Volozh is a leading businessperson involved in economic sectors providing a substantial source of revenue to the Government of the Russian Federation," the bloc said last year to justify its decision. "As founder and CEO of Yandex, he is supporting, materially or financially, the Government of the Russian Federation."

It was February 11, his birthday, and the 58-year-old billionaire CEO and cofounder of Yandex, the Russian tech behemoth, was in the sort of open, engaging mood that could be called privetliviy, after the casual Russian word privet for hello. He was speaking from his car in Tel Aviv, bragging about his father--an oil geologist in his eighties who had "discovered" oil in Israel, Volozh said--as we chatted about my upcoming trip to Tel Aviv to interview him for this story. For more than 20 years, Yandex has been known as "Russia's Google": It began as a search engine in 1997 and still has a 60 percent share of the Russian search market. But for the past decade, this tag has understated the company's inescapable ubiquity in Russians' daily life. Yandex Music is the country's leader in paid music streaming, and Yandex Taxi is the top ride-hailing app.

Russian president Vladimir Putin wanted world leaders to have regulations in store for superhuman soldiers in the future in case they turn in to mass killers who feel no pain or fear, The Express reported Monday. The statement came after he warned attendees of the "World Festival of Youth and Students" Saturday. Genetically-modified superhuman soldiers are a possible danger, because scientists are close to breaking the genetic code. "He can be a genius mathematician, a brilliant musician or a soldier, a man who can fight without fear, compassion, regret or pain," Putin said in his speech for the festival's closing ceremony, according to Express. "What I have just described might be worse than a nuclear bomb," Putin proclaimed, in front of the 20,000 young women and men attending the festival, which was held in the Olympic Park in Sochi.

Genetically-modified superhuman soldiers'worse than a nuclear bomb' could soon become a reality, according to Russian President, Vladimir Putin. Speaking at a youth festival this week, Putin claimed that an army of trained killers could be created if scientists play with man's genetic code. Putin suggested that world leaders should agree on strict regulation to prevent the creation of mass-killing soldiers who feel no pain or fear. Genetically-modified super soldiers'worse than a nuclear bomb' could soon become a reality, according to Russian President, Vladimir Putin Putin warned that messing with the genetic code could have serious consequences. He said: 'One may imagine that a man can create a man not only theoretically but also practically.

Vladimir Putin has expressed his fears over artificial intelligence by asking Russia's largest technology firm how long it will be until smart robots'eat us'. The Russian president was speaking to Arkady Volozh, chief of internet firm Yandex, during a tour of the company's Moscow headquarters. Volozh was discussing the potential of AI when Putin caused surprise by asking when the technology will'eat us'. The Russian president was speaking to Arkady Volozh, chief of internet firm Yandex, during a tour at the company's Moscow headquarters. He replied: 'I hope never.' After a pause, he then explained that other machines are'better than humans' in certain areas, giving the example of an excavator being better at digging than a person with a shovel.

The question seemed to baffle the head of Russia's biggest tech firm, who was giving Putin a tour on the company's Moscow HQ on Thursday. "I hope never", he replied after taking a pause to gather his thoughts. "It's not the first machine to be better than humans at something. An excavator digs better than we do with a shovel. But we don't get eaten by excavators. A car moves faster than we do…" "They don't think," he remarked.