The FIFA World Cup and the Winter Olympics were the two most searched events in Russia in 2018, according to a list released by the Yandex search engine giant on Monday.
Yandex is Russia’s biggest internet search engine with an estimated 56 percent of the country’s search market. The company, which competes with Google and Mail.Ru, has more than 20 offices globally, while its group’s services include taxis, food delivery and a ride-sharing business.
The two global sporting events edged out Vladimir Putin’s re-election, the poisoning of Russian ex-spy Sergei Skripal in Britain and the controversial government decision to raise the country’s retirement age.
The deadly fire that killed 64 people at a shopping mall in the Siberian city of Kemerovo in March, widely believed to be a result of systemic corruption in the country, was the third most searched topic in the past year, according to Yandex.
The top 10 list of events included:
- FIFA World Cup
- Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang
- Kemerovo shopping mall fire
- UFC fight between Nurmagomedov and McGregor
- 2018 presidential elections in Russia
- UEFA League of Nations
- Retirement age increase
- Mass shooting at Kerch college
- Skripal poisoning
- An-148 flight crash in the Moscow region
