Yandex NV (YNV) today announced it has closed on the sale of its Russian assets, freeing the Dutch company up to focus on a collection of AI-related businesses that it aims to build up into a major European tech player. The NASDAQ-listed company, best known as the parent of the “Russian Google”, has completed the biggest exit from the Russian market since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in a $5+ billion sale – albeit this is at a fraction of the company’s pre-war value, after a Kremlin-imposed haircut on companies looking to sell up and leave Russia. “That was the price of freedom,” said on…