Ukraine’s State Security Service (SBU) raided Yandex’s offices in Kiev and Odessa, to find out if the search giant had illegally dispersed Ukrainian users’ data to Russian security agencies.

Ukrainian President, Petro Poroshenko, announced sanctions against the company at the beginning of the month.

A statement was released by SBU following the raid, accusing the company of broadcasting Ukrainian citizens personal data, such as addresses, phone numbers and emails.

“The information was passed to the Russian Federation special services for planning, organisation and conducting of intelligence, subversive, informational operations in our country against the sovereignty of Ukraine, its territorial integrity and inviolability,” said the SBU statement.

Yandex has over 10 million Ukrainian users and denies all assumptions. “The allegations that our employees were transmitting personal data to Russian security forces have no merit,” Yandex added.

Written from source by Leah Alger

Source: BBC