Government Says It Helped Yandex Migrate Systems After Data Center Attacks

Oct. 14, 2026 REUTERS / Anastasia Barashkova Russia’s Digital Development Minister Maksut Shadayev said Wednesday that his office helped tech giant Yandex migrate core systems to external backup servers following last week’s Ukrainian drone attacks. “The ministry assisted Yandex in providing additional sites for relocating key systems,” Shadayev told the business news outlet RBC. Yandex maintained that it has “for many years” developed distributed infrastructure and backup capacities at independent sites. Ukrainian drone attacks, which Shadayev referred to as “unprecedented,” damaged three of Yandex’s six data centers last week. The outages disrupted search, navigation, food delivery and banking services while also affecting corporate clients on Yandex Cloud, including retail giants like Lenta and Magnit. Key Yandex services like Pay and Cloud did not appear to be fully restored as of Wednesday evening. Meanwhile, a top executive of state telecom operator Rostelecom stepped up calls for the construction of geographically isolated, decentralized backup data centers to avoid vulnerabilities exposed by the attacks on Yandex. “Everyone understands today that we need a so-called ‘doomsday’ site, a backup facility where you can always restore your services if something happens,” said senior vice president Valery Yermakov. President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday convened a cybersecurity meeting with Shadayev, state security officials and top executives, including Sberbank CEO Herman Gref, whose bank’s own data center was hit by drones overnight Wednesday. Peskov claimed the meeting was not in response to recent “situational” attacks, though Putin urged officials to bolster national digital defenses against growing security threats. Read more about: Yandex , Drones Sign up for our free weekly newsletter Our weekly newsletter contains a hand-picked selection of news, features, analysis and more from The Moscow Times. You will receive it in your mailbox every Friday. Never miss the latest news from Russia. Preview Subscribers agree to the Privacy Policy We sent a confirmation to your email. Please confirm your subscription. A Message from The Moscow Times: Dear readers, We are facing unprecedented challenges. Russia's Prosecutor General's Office has designated The Moscow Times as an "undesirable" organization, criminalizing our work and putting our staff at risk of prosecution. This follows our earlier unjust labeling as a "foreign agent." These actions are direct attempts to silence independent journalism in Russia. The authorities claim our work "discredits the decisions of the Russian leadership." We see things differently: we strive to provide accurate, unbiased reporting on Russia. We, the journalists of The Moscow Times, refuse to be silenced. But to continue our work, we need your help. Your support, no matter how small, makes a world of difference. If you can, please support us monthly starting from just $2. It's quick to set up, and every contribution makes a significant impact. By supporting The Moscow Times, you're defending open, independent journalism in the face of repression. Thank you for standing with us. Once Monthly Annual Continue Not ready to support today? Remind me later. × Remind me next month Remind me Thank you! Your reminder is set. We will send you one reminder email a month from now. For details on the personal data we collect and how it is used, please see our Privacy Policy. Read more Yandex Waives Cloud and Software Fees After Ukrainian Drone Attacks on Data Centers Yandex stock dropped 77 billion rubles ($918.5 million) over two days of trading on the Moscow Exchange, marking a 5.4% fall in market capitalization. 2 Min read Ukraine’s Strikes on Yandex Data Centers, Explained Drone strikes on Yandex data centers are disrupting services from taxis to digital payments across Russia. 5 Min read Russia’s Yandex Says Data Center in Vladimir Shut Down After Drone Attack Some of Yandex's services are currently unavailable to users, the company said. 1 Min read Ukrainian Drones Hit Yandex Data Center, Industrial Facilities Across Russia The attack marks the first confirmed strike against Russian data infrastructure, weeks after Moscow did the same. 2 Min read