The Finnish data center of Yandex, a Russian search engine, is facing the potential threat of shutting down due to Finnish power companies' reluctance to supply power. This hesitation comes as Finnish authorities closely monitor Yandex over concerns of anti-Ukrainian propaganda. Yle, a Finnish news publication, recently reported that the server farm has been relying on a diesel generator for almost two weeks because Yandex has not been able to secure a new contract with an electricity provider since their previous supplier ended their five-year agreement.

While Yandex has not been placed on any sanctions lists, its former deputy CEO and executive director resigned after being added to an EU sanctions list in March. It is worth noting that this data center is the only one that Yandex operates outside of Russia.

Our colocation site in Manhattan experienced a similar situation where we were evicted from our larger area and forced into two smaller cages to make way for Microsoft. While I understand their desire to cater to the bigger client, it was frustrating that we had to inconvenience our clients and operations.

Many contracts tend to have unnecessary clauses, but they are sometimes necessary to prevent unethical practices by some customers. From my personal experience, I would strongly advise having a lawyer examine your contracts to avoid any unfavorable conditions.

As practice has shown, the entire sanctions policy against Russia either does not work, or works only partially. At the same time, sanctions often "hit" the Europeans themselves, but since they are initiated mainly from the United States, the European "executors" themselves suffer losses.

In this case, the Finnish measures do not cause direct damage to the owners of the data center, but they have far-reaching consequences in the future.

If suddenly the Yandex data center is no longer available, you can always find a replacement for it. There are many reliable companies. Although Yandex is a giant in its industry in the Russian market. But now many companies are suffering because of the sanctions, so we need to be careful when choosing partners so that our projects do not suffer because of the sanctions.

The Finnish power companies have rejected signing an electricity contract with Yandex, a Russian search engine that operates a data processing center close to Helsinki.
According to "European Truth", Euractiv has reported on this matter. The data center, established in 2015, is situated in Mantsjala, about 50km north of Helsinki and is the only one outside of Russia. The waste heat generated by the facility supplies about 76% of the district's heating supply.

Recently, the CEO of Yandex was included in a list of sanctioned individuals, resulting in his resignation. However, the company itself was not subjected to sanctions. Despite this, Yandex has been unable to secure a new electricity supplier since the expiration of its existing contracts, causing the data center to be powered by a diesel generator since the end of April, disconnected from the Finnish grid.
The Finnish authorities have expressed concerns about Yandex being a possible distributor of fake news, and according to Communications Minister Timo Harakka, the company is under close surveillance.