Putin targeting American companies, saying it’s necessary to “suffocate” them

He said the problem is foreign service providers that act against Russian interests, mentioning Microsoft and Zoom.

What is happening?

Russian President, Vladimir Putin, said Monday, that foreign IT-service providers acting against Russian interests need to be “suffocate”, per Russian state-controlled media, Tass.

Russian businesses complain

According to Tass, Putin attended a meeting with representatives from Russian businesses.

One of the representatives complained that foreign service providers like Zoom are still in Russia, even though they have announced that they are leaving the country.

“We have to retaliate”

The representatives argument was that Russian companies are losing billions because of the foreign providers, and Putin said he agrees.

“We have to suffocate them. I completely agree (…) We have to retaliate,” the President said.

Collecting information

Putin asked the representative to forward any information to the Presidential Administration regarding what Russian companies are using foreign service providers.

Targeting costumers?

Putin did not specify how the information would be used, but linked with the statement of needing to “suffocate” the companies, the information might be used to target the Russian businesses still using foreign service-providers, forcing them to find alternatives.

Will help Russians ditch “bad habits”

The business representative also mentioned the B2C-segment, arguing the average Russian is slow to ditch the foreign service providers, calling it a “bad habit”.

Putin then ordered “help to ditch these bad habits”.

Difficult to find out

Numerous Western companies left the Russian market after the Invasion of Ukraine in early 2022.

It is difficult to find out exactly what companies are still operating in Russia, as there have been examples of companies working around international sanctions to keep operating in Russia.

Microsoft and Zoom

In March 2022, Microsoft announced that it would suspend all new sales of products and services in Russia.

Zoom stopped selling new licenses to Russian costumers in October 2022 as well as banning its distributors from selling to government entities.