The YaRus social network, which since 2019 was created with the money of the head of PMC Wagner Yevgeny Prigozhin, announced the termination of its work. According to the company’s Telegram, the reason was the “unstable political situation.”
Representatives of the platform said they decided to stop its work from June 30 "after a thorough analysis of the current situation." “For YaRUS to take place, a large amount of investment was required, and we found funding in Russia. Due to the political situation, support for the project has been suspended. We are looking for new investors,” the company said.
The fact that "ЯRus" was created with the money of Prigozhin was told by the "Dossier" center. The social network is presented as a “patriotic analogue” of Zen, Instagram and TikTok. In 2021, Prigozhin spent about 30-40 million rubles a month on it, depending on advertising costs, according to the Dossier investigation. There are almost no real users in YaRus, and the content is copied from other platforms. In April 2022, the Ministry of Digital Transformation mentioned YaRus among Russian analogues of social networks and Meta messengers.
After Prigozhin's rebellion and his attempt to march on Moscow, the fate of his media projects was in question. On June 24, Roskomnadzor blocked RIA FAN, Narodnye Novosti and other media outlets belonging to the Patriot media group owned by Prigozhin. Employees of these companies told The Bell that they expect an imminent change of ownership.