Yandex admits informing on clients to the Russian Security Service

Russia's top Internet portal Yandex admitted on Monday that it had passed information to the FSB [Federal Security Service] about people who donated money to the anti-corruption activist Alexei Navalny.

The Chief Editor of Yandex, Yelena Kolmanovskaya admitted on the radio station Eco Moskvy that the information requests received had concerned both Navalny’s account and “around 100 people”. She claimed that Yandex had been forced to provide the information to the FSB, and was itself unhappy about the situation.

The scandal began in the middle of April when some of those who had contributed to the anti-corruption project began receiving phone calls from strangers on their mobiles. The callers said they were from the media and asked why the people had supported Navalny.

According to several blogers, as well as their mobile telephone numbers, the callers also knew their bank details which could not legally have been available even to the organizers of the anti-corruption project.

Alexei Navalny has written in Twitter that he knows the origin of the information leak and has promised to write about it in the near future.

Several months ago Alexei Navalny launched a website “RosLip” aimed at publishing information about dubious State procurements and asked for donations to support the anti-corruption project.  The report here gives information about the sort of work Navalny and those he support him are doing.

From reports on the BBC Russian Service and other sources