In Russia, a court has ordered Yandex to hide access to maps and photos of an oil refinery.

The Russian news outlet TASS reported on this, citing court documents reviewed by the agency’s correspondent.

It is not reported which refinery was in question, but it is clarified that the company had been attacked by drones four times in 2024 alone.

The company reportedly “operates in an uninterrupted mode, meeting the needs of the Russian army and navy” during the war against Ukraine.

The court ordered Yandex to “prevent information access to the infrastructure of the oil refining company by removing, retouching graphic images of the company’s components (workshops, compressor stations, tank sites, and other plant elements)” from its maps within one month.

As part of the court decision, the company was also charged with the state duty.

Important facilities

A representative of the supervisory agency said that during the inspection of the defense industry legislation, it had turned out that the company’s service had posted information about a strategically important oil refinery in the public domain.

The facility, which operates in an uninterrupted mode for the needs of the army and navy, has suffered four attacks using 2024 UAVs, which led to damage to infrastructure and injuries to employees, TASS reports.

After unsuccessful attempts in May last year to resolve the issue of the safety of its facilities and employees directly with Yandex headquarters, the supervisory agency appealed to the court, which upheld its arguments in full.

The defendant’s representative objected to the prosecutor’s claims at the hearing, but the court concluded that the circumstances set out in the statement of claim undermine the state’s defense capabilities and negatively affect the timely supply of materials to the Russian Armed Forces.

This is the first court ruling that has ordered a Russian multinational information technology company to remove photos and maps of a strategically important defense industry facility from public access. The decision has not yet entered into force and may be appealed to the Court of Appeal.

On the night of December 31, strike drones hit a local oil depot in the city of Yartsevo, the Smolensk region.