Billionaires from Forbes remove information about themselves from Yandex

Over the year, their number increased from 12 to 15 people

At least 15 of the 155 Russian billionaires included in the Forbes 2026 list took advantage of the “right to be forgotten” law to remove articles with information about themselves from the Yandex search engine, Vorstka noted.

In order not to miss new texts from “Layout”, subscribe to our telegram channel

The total wealth of billionaires who deleted information about themselves was $61.7 billion.

The opportunity to delete data was taken by Vyacheslav Kantor (net worth, according to Forbes, $12 billion), Andrey Guryev ($10.8 billion), Mikhail Gutseriev ($7.7 billion), Andrey Skoch ($6.8 billion), God Nisanov ($5.1 billion), Igor Altushkin ($4.9 billion), Alexander Ponomarenko ($2.3 billion), Oleg Boyko ($1.9 billion), Said Gutseriev ($1.8 billion) billion), Vladimir Krupchak ($1.6 billion), Vladimir Voronin ($1.5 billion), Andrey Komarov ($1.5 billion), Gleb Fetisov ($1.4 billion), Alexander Klyachin ($1.3 billion), Evgeny Mikhailov ($1.1 billion).

When entering a combination of the first and last names of these businessmen, and in some cases when adding the word “billionaire,” Yandex issues a disclaimer that “some of the search results are hidden in accordance with Federal Law No. 264-FZ of July 13, 2015.”

Compared to the 2024 ranking , which included 125 billionaires, the number of those who decided to hide information about themselves increased from 12 to 15 people.

Vladimir Voronin, Vladimir Krupchak, Andrey Komarov, Alexander Klyachin and Evgeny Mikhailov were added to the list. At the same time, the disclaimer about hiding data stopped appearing when searching for entrepreneur Mikhail Shelkov. And businessman Denis Shtengelov, who took advantage of this opportunity, was not included in the Forbes ranking this year.

The law on the “right to be forgotten” in Russia came into force in 2016

The “right to be forgotten” law in Russia came into effect in 2016, allowing Russians to demand the removal of links to inaccurate, outdated or illegally disseminated information about themselves. Yandex reported that in order to delete data, it is necessary to provide evidence that it is false, for example, a court decision. “Verstka” discovered five case files related to claims by billionaires.

Thus, in 2023, the Khamovnichesky Court of Moscow refused to oblige businessman Vladimir Krupchak to oblige Yandex to hide an article about himself in which the billionaire was accused of misappropriation of state property, theft of money, “tax fraud, deliberate ruin of companies, fraud, criminal acts against the individual.” Krupchak pointed out that this information is not reliable and not relevant, and the search platform did not delete it.

In addition, as Vorstka previously wrote, in 2020 Mikhail Gutseriev filed a lawsuit for the protection of honor and dignity against Media Strategy. The court satisfied the billionaire's demands, but what exactly was the reason for the appeal is unknown.

In 2018, MP and billionaire Andrei Skoch achieved satisfaction of his claim against several media outlets that wrote about his connection with crime bosses Andrei Kochuykov and Zakhary Kalashov. The court ordered the journalists to remove the articles.

At the same time, the head of the Russian Copper Company, Igor Altushkin, demanded that the court oblige Roskomnadzor to block a page on Compromat Wiki that mentioned his name. The court in Yekaterinburg satisfied the requirements.

Another billionaire who filed lawsuits for the protection of honor and dignity is Gleb Fetisov. In 2016, he demanded that the publications Kommersant and Izvestia refute articles in which he was associated with losses during the creation of the film Viy. The court rejected the billionaire's claim against Kommersant; Izvestia published a refutation.

Previously, “Verstka” told how Russian billionaires from the Forbes list are trying to get rid of associations with Moscow and which of them succeeded.

Photo: REUTERS/Sergei Karpukhin

You can support “Layout” from any country in the world - it is still safe and very important. We really need your support now