- Putin wants Western software "throttled" within Russia
- Microsoft and Zoom are still widely used by Russian businesses
- Domestic alternatives exist, but aren't being adopted as fast as Putin would like
US tech companies including Microsoft and Zoom should be “throttled” and “strangled” from operating in Russia, President Vladimir Putin has said.
The statements, reported by Reuters, were reportedly made in response to complaints from Russian business leaders that US companies who previously announced their exit from Russian markets in response to the invasion of Ukraine still continue to operate in the country.
Microsoft announced the suspension of new sales of its software in the Russian market in 2022, but many Russian companies still use Western products and software, likely due to the lack of domestic alternatives.
Putin wants domestic office software
Sanctions put in place by Western countries following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 have led to widespread calls for locally sourced and domestically produced products, ranging from aircraft parts to office software.
Many companies that pulled out of Russia left their locations and assets in place, such as McDonalds which was replaced by a new company called “Vkusno i Tochka,” who quickly introduced analogues of classic menu items such as the ‘Big Hit’ (a non-copyright infringing alternative to the Big Mac).
Now it seems that Putin wants to further distance Russia from the West by pushing for Russian businesses to begin using or producing software that could replace solutions offered by Microsoft and Zoom.
Alternatives to Western software already exist, with Kaspersky Lab becoming a majority shareholder of the МойОфис (MyOffice) software to improve collaboration between the office suite and Kaspersky’s own KasperskyOS secure operating system.
Western products and software previously dominated Russian markets before the invasion of Ukraine, with Russia taking steps to move away from Western software in the decade before the ‘special military operation’. How well domestic alternatives will perform on Russia’s range of Linux-based operating systems remains to be seen.
