According to a press release out today Russia’s largest search engine,  Yandex (NASDAQ: YNDX) announced it will be launching its new Brand gTLD .Yandex shortly on a closed basis except for trademark holders.

“The ICANN has really approved the creation of a .Yandex domain zone, we are preparing to launch it. We are not ready to mention the exact date of the zone’s launch for the users,” the spokesperson said.

“We do not plan to open a paid registry in the .yandex,” the spokesperson said, adding that all current information will be represented in the zone: “our search engines, our services and information on the Yandex company.”

The first technical domains nic.yandex and whois.yandex may be launched in two weeks.

During priority registration any company whose trademarks are included in the ICANN’s special depository register will be able to purchase the domain in the new zone at a fixed price.

Yandex has about 60% of the Russian Search Engine Market.

It will be interesting to see how the company uses the .Yandex new gTLD