Russia orders Yandex to scrub maps and images of strategic oil refinery

A Russian court has reportedly ordered the local tech giant Yandex to block access to maps and images of one of the country’s largest oil refineries on its platforms, citing Ukraine’s repeated drone attacks on the facility.

According to the Russian state-owned news agency TASS, this is the first court ruling requiring Yandex to remove information about strategically important defense industry facilities from public access.

Yandex — often referred to as “Russia's Google” — operates the country’s largest search engine and a variety of internet services, including maps, email, ride-hailing, and e-commerce.

The refinery was not named in the court documents, but Russian independent media reported that the listed address appears to indicate the location of the state-controlled Rosneft oil refinery in the city of Ryazan.

Rosneft has been supplying materials to the Russian military fighting in Ukraine throughout the war. Over the past year, it has been subjected to four Ukrainian attacks, which damaged its infrastructure and injured employees, according to state media reports.

An unidentified "regulatory agency" filed the lawsuit against Yandex, according to TASS. The agency's investigation reportedly found that detailed information regarding the refinery's facilities was publicly accessible. After direct negotiations with Yandex proved unsuccessful, the agency sought judicial intervention.

Yandex is now required to remove or blur maps and photos of workshops, compressor stations, areas with tanks, and other parts of the plant. According to TASS, the court ruled that public access to the images "undermines national defense capabilities" and "hinders the timely delivery of materials" to the military. Additionally, Yandex was instructed to pay fee to the state.

The court's decision can be appealed. Yandex has not publicly commented on the lawsuit and didn’t respond to a request for comment. 

Publicly accessible images of strategic military facilities have been a problem for both Russia and Ukraine. In November, Ukraine accused Google of exposing the locations of its military sites in an update to its online mapping service. Ukrainian state officials said the public exposure of any military information could be detrimental, as it might reveal the positioning of military equipment, such as air defense systems.

The company’s representatives in Ukraine told local media that the satellite images in question were taken over a year ago and came from publicly available sources. "We consciously avoid publishing the latest images of combat zones," Google Ukraine said.