> it's a Russian company breaking Russian laws and getting away with it

I don't think you've lived in Russia if you need to ask that question. Breaking the law and getting away with it is a way of life in Russia, that goes for all institutions and social strata

Breaking random laws? Sure. Breaking laws specifically made to enable central government control of independent media? Uh, how do you do that? Have you not noticed for how minor things regarding freedom of expression have been Russian people getting into jail recently?

>Uh, how do you do that?

By being on the internet. Russia has always been good at literally hitting you with a physical club if you're crazy enough to take a sign to the streets, but the Russian state doesn't understand the internet, or really anything that's sort of underground or intangible.

There's a reason the country is probably the world's largest place for all things piracy related, scihub and so on. It's not just laxer IP laws, it's also that tech in particular has always skirted all kinds of regulation freely, it's why the country has a relatively healthy tech industry despite at times suffocating regulation. The prevalence of cybercrime in the country is another example of it. Being censorious doesn't make you competent.

Even Telegram which was at some point supposedly blocked was still used by everyone, including funnily enough the foreign ministry itself. These things never really work in Russia.(https://www.reuters.com/article/us-russia-telegram-ban-idUSK...)

I could have worded that better. I just mean ignoring the general political situation in Russia, Yandex makes some really good products.