One of the best known global services of short-term housing rent Airbnb.com prepares expansion into Russia, the newspaper Kommersant reports.

Airbnb, estimated last year at $1bn, has launched the Russian language version of the website and prepares to open a representative office in Moscow.

According to a manager of one of Russian Internet-companies, the company is currently looking for a space for the Moscow representative office of Airbnb. New employees will start working in Russia on February 1, Airbnb’s employment ad said. The head of the Moscow office of Airbnb was employed back in November, 2011. Some Russian-speaking employees from the office in Germany were also moved to the Russian office, Kommersant’s source said.

Christopher Lukezic, a representative of Airbnb, would not disclose details of the company’s strategy in Russia but confirmed that the Russian-language version of the website had been launched. Its search system provides links to 662 housing offers per one guest. The Russian website has so far been working in test mode, its official presentation is scheduled for February 9, 2012, Kommersant’s source said.

The Internet-service of short-term housing rent Airbnb.com (AirBed and Breakfast) was founded in 2009 by Joe Gebbia, Brian Chesky and Nathan Blecharczyk, an ex-employee of Microsoft. The service provides renting offers (over 100,000 offers) in over 19,000 cities in 192 countries on average for $100 per day. Among Airbnbn.com shareholders are the funds Andreessen Horowitz, General Catalyst and Yury Milner and Alisher Usmanov’s DST Global that in July 2011 invested in the project $112m while the service was estimated at $1bn.