UPDATE: Putin says Yandex competes in Russia with Google with state help

(Adds Yandex’s quotes in paragraph 3)

MOSCOW, Jun 20 (PRIME) -- Internet company Yandex competes on the Russian market with U.S. giant Google successfully not without government’s assistance, President Vladimir Putin said Thursday during his annual Direct Line Q&A session.

“Our market is open, unprotected, and our company, such a nice company as your Yandex successfully competes on our market with such behemoths as Google. It’s not without state support,” Putin told Yelena Bunina, CEO of Yandex in Russia.

Yandex’s common shares on the Moscow Exchange have renewed their historic high on Putin’s words about state support. The securities advanced 2.3% to 2,527 rubles as of 3:46 p.m. Moscow time.

The president also said that the government should ensure a market for local programmers.

“What is especially important and what I’d like to underline is that we should think with colleagues from the government, certainly think, on provision of a market for our programmers, especially in such sensitive industries as state management, manufacturing, and power, in the system of management and finances, in big companies to guarantee sovereignty and ensure security,” Putin said.

“Such decisions…should be made on the government level. It could be not so much of market-minded…In this segment, it’s absolutely certain that we need state support to provide a market of such kind.”

(63.9794 rubles – U.S. $1)

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