MOSCOW, July 2 (RAPSI) – The Prosecutor General’s Office has ruled that the activity of Yandex, the operator of Russia’s largest search engine, is in full compliance with Russian law and is not required to register as a media outlet, Kommersant newspaper writes, citing a source close to the Kremlin.

In mid-May, State Duma Deputy Andrei Lugovoi (Liberal Democratic Party) requested that Prosecutor General Yury Chaika look into the activity of Yandex. He argued that the search engine’s news section should be categorized as mass media.

“The case is closed. The prosecutor’s office has written in its response that Yandex has been operating in full compliance with the law,” the newspaper writes, citing its source.

Yandex is an international IT company registered in Russia. It has a search engine and an Internet site of the same name, which generated 61.9% of all search traffic in Russia as of December 2013.

President Putin said at the First Media Forum of Independent Regional and Local Media, organized by the Russian Popular Front in April, that “regarding Yandex, things are not that simple.” He was replying to a question about the duality of Yandex, whether it should be categorized as a search engine or a media outlet.

Putin also said that the government and the presidential Executive Office were working to define the term “media” and were discussing it publicly. 
For its part, Yandex said that its home page only features the headlines of the most popular media outlets that hold a Russian license.