[“Alice” - named in the headline - is a Russian generative AI chatbot and digital personal assistant.]

Natasha, Moscow

On Sunday [October 11], everything looked okay at first when I ordered a taxi, but then all I could see on the screen were two messages: “Searching for a car” and “Loading trip details.” It stayed that way for half an hour. When I gave up and headed for the subway, the driver called and asked where to pick me up. Apparently, he’d noticed my location marker moving away …

Then I discovered that the payment method had switched from card to cash, and I didn’t have any cash on me. I couldn’t switch it back because the app was still showing the same “Searching for a car” and “Loading details” messages. Restarting it didn’t help.

I said, “Can I send you a bank transfer?” The driver said, “To Yandex Bank.” I opened the banking app, and there was a message saying, “We’ll have everything fixed soon”… It turned out the driver’s other accounts were blocked. Luckily, I managed to reach some friends nearby who had cash …

…

Ivan, Yekaterinburg

I can’t access my photo and video archive on Yandex Disk. My whole life is in there — from when I was young to photos of my kids. Right now, you can’t download anything, only view it. And some files look like they’re gone for good — they won’t even open in preview mode …

Now it all depends on how well Yandex designed its recovery system [for restoring files after an outage — Meduza]. I’d like to believe they’ve taken all the necessary steps on their end.

Either way, Putin and his gang bear all the responsibility.

…

Stanislav, Nizhny Novgorod

I couldn’t make a payment on my credit card from another bank because all my money is in a Yandex savings account. I had to borrow from people I know to avoid getting hit with interest. It’s not like you can explain to the other bank why you can’t pay.

Hundreds, probably even thousands, of people are in the same situation. Many can’t make their mortgage or loan payments or pay their rent. All of this will damage their credit histories and cause financial problems, because if you don’t meet your credit card’s terms, you can get hit with outrageous interest.

I’m definitely moving half my money to another bank, even if the terms aren’t as good.

…

Kirill, Novosibirsk

I’m a taxi driver. It’s my main source of income. My work has come to a standstill … There are no alternatives. Yandex has taken over the entire market. I have nothing fit to print to say about what’s going on.

…

Alex, Balakovo, Saratov region

Taxi drivers are waiting at bus stops, store registers are glitching, Kinopoisk isn’t working, and neither is Alice. I wanted to download my data from cloud storage, but no luck … I’ll buy an 18-terabyte drive and keep all my files on it.

Dodging responsibility whenever something beyond your control happens is a way of life in Russia. It’s cheap and underhanded, though predictable. Our family, like the rest of the world, stopped recognizing Russia’s government as legitimate long ago, so whatever they come up with over there [in the Kremlin] is their business alone. There have never been so many spectacular idiots in the State Duma — the concentration of insanity is off the charts. When is Ukraine finally going to start hitting their dachas on Rublyovka?!

…

[The linked article provides many other testimonials.]

Archived

Edit:

Meanwhile, the Kremlin says the government is discussing Yandex’s problems after Ukrainian strikes on its data centres.

… Asked whether the ​government was considering a mechanism to ‌compensate ⁠users, [Kremlin spokesman ⁠Dmitry Peskov] said Yandex was “currently facing difficulties, and of course the matter is ​being ​discussed by ⁠the government, but the company is ​taking urgent steps to ​address ⁠the consequences of the attack” … “The company is strong ⁠and ​powerful,” Peskov told ​reporters …