/rant There can be no doubt that Russia has many, many brilliant mathematicians and engineers (poets, writers and musicians too). Everyone knows this. And, ind

/rant There can be no doubt that Russia has many, many brilliant mathematicians and engineers (poets, writers and musicians too). Everyone knows this. And, individually, I know their people can be quite lovely. The problem is that these people are in Russia. Russia crushes all. How many times do people have to get burned by Russia to realize Russia is a trade - not an investment? How long before the wannabe czar declares "all your routers/servers/data/money/life are belong to us"? "Russians", by and large, are not affluent. A relative handful of Moscowvites are. Mark Franchetti is obviously on the payroll but why he would write this blatant puff piece about "yet another indexer" is beyond me. These people have nothing Google, Yahoo and even Microsoft can and have put together. The only thing they do have is an advantage in the understanding of native Russian language and society. Ok, so? There is no market for Russian services outside of Russia. The rest of the world speaks English, French, Spanish, Arabic or some version of Chinese with a smattering of Portuguese thrown in for good measure. Since the Empire struck back in Georgia, international monetary outflows from Russia have been at their highest levels since the Great Ruble Implosion of the late 1990's. Lets face it gang, when the big ugly bear flexes its muscles people run for cover. Nobody wants to be in bed with his highness, the dread nightmare Putin. Who here thinks Putin has his peoples best interest at heart? Who here thinks a goal of Russia is to increase the prosperity of its people? Putin is out for numero uno, Putin. And the main concern for Putin is Gazprom. Who here thinks that Yandex will continue to fly under the radar of the FSB indefinitely? Who here thinks an independent, privately owned and operated company can exist in Russia without connections to their political/military/underworld/secret police? (off topic) People in the West love to bitch and moan about the US all day long. 'Hegemony', 'Imperialism', 'Totalitarianism' and, lest we forget, torture. Has everyone fallen asleep at the wheel? If you are from the West and do not have an ancestral connection to mother Russia, you have no idea what any of those words mean. It will be many generations (hopefully that short) before Russia is friendly enough as a national entity to do anything even related to business with. In closing, if this Yandex knows whats good for them they will pull up stakes, run dont walk and leave Russia with extreme haste and plop themselves down anywhere else. London, Paris, Silicon Valley, New York, Madrid. Pick one, any of a dozen or more cities would be better than the dump that we know today as Russia. Oh, in the fairness of full disclosure, if it sounds like I am anti-Russia in the extreme, I am. Honestly, which Olympic medalist of any color has defected from the West to Russia? We here in America have Russia to thank for our brand new Olympic individual gymnastic all-around Champion, Nastia Luikin :) /end rant