MOSCOW and THE HAGUE, Netherlands, June 4, 2012 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Yandex (YNDX), the leading internet company in Russia operating the country's most popular search engine and most visited website, today announced that it will continue to offer its own customized version of Mozilla's Firefox from Yandex websites following the release of Firefox version 14 for the Russian market. The "nightly" test version is expected to be released tomorrow, followed by the beta version by the end of the week. 

This customized version of the Firefox browser was developed under Yandex's arrangements with Mozilla and includes Yandex as the default search service. With the release of the new version of Firefox, Yandex will remain among the search options available to users of Firefox's generic browser but will no longer be the default search provider. As with prior versions of Firefox, users will be able to change the default search provider if they desire. 

Yandex expects that this change of the default search settings in the generic Firefox browser will have a minimal effect on its share of searches, and the impact on revenue and profitability will be negligible.   

ABOUT YANDEX

Yandex (YNDX) is the leading internet company in Russia, operating the country's most popular search engine and most visited website. Yandex also operates in Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Belarus and Turkey. Yandex's mission is to answer any question internet users may have.

The Yandex Company logo is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/newsroom/prs/?pkgid=10933

FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

This press release contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. These include statements regarding the impact that the release of Firefox 14 will have on our market share and budgeted revenues and profitability. Actual results may differ materially from the results predicted or implied by such statements, and our reported results should not be considered as an indication of future performance. The potential risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ from the results predicted or implied by such statements include, among others, competitive pressures, changes in advertising patterns, changes in user preferences, changes in the legal and regulatory environment, technological developments, unforeseen changes in our hiring patterns, and our need to expend capital to accommodate the growth of the business, as well as those risks and uncertainties included under the captions "Risk Factors" and "Operating and Financial Review and Prospects" in our Annual Report on Form 20-F for the year ended December 31, 2011, which is on file with the Securities and Exchange Commission and is available on our investor relations website at http://company.yandex.com/investor_relations/sec_filing.xml and on the SEC website at www.sec.gov. All information provided in this release is as of June 4, 2012, and Yandex undertakes no duty to update this information unless required by law.

CONTACT: Investor Relations
         Dmitry Barsukov, Katya Zhukova
         Phone: +7 495 739-7000
         E-mail: askIR@yandex-team.ru
         
         US Investor Contact
         The Blueshirt Group, for Yandex
         Alex Wellins
         Phone: +1 415 217-5861
         E-mail: alex@blueshirtgroup.com
         
         Media Relations
         Ochir Mandzhikov, Dina Litvinova
         Phone: +7 495 739-7000
         E-mail: pr@yandex-team.ru