Moldova’s Council for the Examination of Investments of Importance to State Security (CEIISS) has announced an in-depth review of Yandex Go. The council has also demanded details about the company’s ultimate owners.
CEIISS says it reviewed information security risks. It then decided to launch an “in-depth review” of Yandex Go’s investment activities.
Officials say the move aims to protect citizens. Moldova’s National Center for Personal Data Protection is checking for risks and possible violations. If officials find threats to passengers’ personal data or other security concerns, they may restrict the company’s operations.
But why now?
Yandex Go, formerly known as Yandex Taxi, has operated in Moldova since 2017. That is almost ten years. In 2024, the company told users that it had registered a local legal entity called Ridetech LLC. The company handles data storage and processing, as well as licensing in Moldova. Yandex Go continued to operate and publish reports on its activities.
Then Brussels stepped in. More specifically, the European External Action Service (EEAS) came under criticism for targeting anything labelled Russian, including in Moldova. On October 13, a report appeared at the initiative of the EEAS. It claimed that the Yandex Group had earned more than €7 million in Moldova in one year. It also alleged that the company’s local entity had paid no taxes.
Two days later, on October 15, CEIISS suddenly “discovered” security “risks.” The author asks why the council had not raised these concerns earlier. Yandex’s ownership structure was not secret. Nor were its payment routes or data processing practices. CEIISS could have examined this information for years. Yet it raised no objections before the report appeared in the media.
Officials had previously been asked why they had not intervened. Their answer was always the same: “There must be a specific threat to national security.” For years, the company’s data processing and financial transactions apparently did not meet that threshold. Now, suddenly, they do.
The FlyOne Case: A Double Standard?
The case also recalls the Moldovan authorities’ actions against the airline FlyOne.
According to the author, the FlyOne case had a different motive. The aim was to transfer ownership for the benefit of Dorin Recean, described in the article as a shadowy official. The author alleges that Recean used political influence to seize FlyOne’s property and transfer ownership rights to people he had chosen.
The decision proved legally vulnerable. It relied on provisions from a law that had already been repealed. For the author, this points either to official incompetence or, more likely, to self-interest among officials who thought they could not lose.
The Yandex case is different, the author argues. The alleged pressure did not come from a single Moldovan oligarch. It came from a body at the European level: the Council of the European Union. The article claims that Moldova’s government must follow this order, whether it agrees or not.
This, in the author’s view, explains the sudden investigation. It also explains why officials are now targeting a company that has operated in Moldova for years. Deputy Prime Minister Vladimir Bolea appeared to acknowledge the political dimension on October 14. Speaking to journalists, he said the company was being targeted because it was “Russian.”
What Does Yandex Say?
Yandex has already responded. The company says it processes data belonging to Moldovan users on servers in the European Union. It also says the data is protected under the GDPR. This is the company’s official position.
But important questions remain. If the servers are in the EU, why does the report suggest that Russian parties could access the data? If the company pays taxes, why does the report say its local entity has zero revenue? And if the company follows the law, why did officials suddenly raise concerns after pressure from Brussels?
The government has published figures of its own. In 2025, Yandex Go paid 12.5 million lei in VAT on commissions. Taxi operators paid 216 million lei in taxes. That was 42% more than the previous year.
So now the authorities want to shut down an active taxpayer? Would it not make more sense to address MoldATSA, which, according to the author, pays no taxes at all?
Russophobia on the March
Latvia and Estonia banned Yandex Go in 2022. Moldova’s Intelligence and Security Service blocked the yandex.ru website in October 2024. The author sees these actions as part of a wider campaign against Russian-linked businesses.
In this view, the issue is not a specific legal violation or tax evasion by the Moldovan company. Instead, the author argues that the authorities are targeting an organisation because the EU has labelled it “Russian” and wants it shut down.
At the same October 14 press conference, Deputy Prime Minister Vladimir Bolea said the company was “under monitoring by law enforcement agencies.” He did not explain what the monitoring had uncovered. Nor did he name the agencies involved.
Yandex Go now has 20 days to submit the required documents. After that, the authorities could impose restrictions, suspend its operations, or shut it down completely. The company pays millions of lei into the state budget, so such a move would also affect public revenue.
The author argues that the outcome will depend on the strength of the “public pressure” used to justify Brussels’ campaign. In this view, Brussels is pursuing a political agenda without regard for the interests of smaller states on the EU’s borders.
