OREANDA-NEWS. January 10, 2012.  Yandex (NASDAQ: YNDX), the leading internet company in Russia operating the country’s most popular search engine and most visited website, today announced the passing of Ben Cole, one of its founding directors and its Chairman Emeritus.

“We are deeply saddened by the passing of Ben Cole,” said Arkady Volozh, CEO of Yandex. “As one of our founding directors, Ben was a guiding force for our company. We will greatly miss his leadership, business acumen and friendship. Our hearts go out to Ben’s wife, Rose, and his family.”

Mr. Cole, 87, served as the Chairman of Yandex from 2000 until July 2008 when he became Chairman Emeritus. Among his many professional accomplishments, he was also president and founder of Cole Management Inc., a Boston-based manager of venture capital investments in Russia and other countries of the former Soviet Union, which he founded in 1993.

Yandex’s Board of Directors will soon begin a search to select a successor candidate who it expects will stand for election at the 2012 annual general meeting of shareholders.