Microsoft to 'Suspend All New Sales' of Products and Services in Russia - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 04 March 2022 / 2,522 Views
Microsoft president and vice chair Brad Smith announced the company is stopping the sale of all new products and services in Russia.
The company is working closely with the US, UK, and European Union and are working to stop many aspects of its business in Russia to comply with government sanctions.
"Like the rest of the world, we are horrified, angered and saddened by the images and news coming from the war in Ukraine and condemn this unjustified, unprovoked and unlawful invasion by Russia," said Smith.
He added, "We are announcing today that we will suspend all new sales of Microsoft products and services in Russia.
"In addition, we are coordinating closely and working in lockstep with the governments of the United States, the European Union and the United Kingdom, and we are stopping many aspects of our business in Russia in compliance with governmental sanctions decisions.
"We believe we are most effective in aiding Ukraine when we take concrete steps in coordination with the decisions being made by these governments and we will take additional steps as this situation continues to evolve."
Microsoft is working to protect Ukraine's cybersecurity by working with cybersecurity officials in Ukraine to protect from Russian attacks. This includes a recent cyberattack against a major Ukrainian broadcaster.
"Since the war began, we have acted against Russian positioning, destructive or disruptive measures against more than 20 Ukrainian government, IT and financial sector organizations," said Smith. "We have also acted against cyberattacks targeting several additional civilian sites. We have publicly raised our concerns that these attacks against civilians violate the Geneva Convention.
"We are also continuing to mobilize our resources to help the people in Ukraine. Our Microsoft Philanthropies and UN Affairs teams are working closely with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and multiple UN agencies to help refugees by providing technology and financial support for key NGOs and, where needed, we are defending these groups from ongoing cyberattacks.
"As a company, we are committed to the safety of our employees in Ukraine and we are in constant contact with them to offer support in many forms, including those who have needed to flee for their lives or safety."
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel dedicated to gaming Let's Plays and tutorials. You can contact the author at wdangelo@vgchartz.com or on Twitter @TrunksWD.
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As I've said on other articles, this stuff is a feel-good measure that is at best pointless, and very likely counterproductive. First, it is important to keep in mind that people in Russia cannot apply political pressure to the government in anything close to the same degree that we can in the West. So, this effort to pressure the people into pressuring the government to do something just won't work. It simply can't work.
Second, and probably more importantly, we know that Russia is extremely good at the propaganda game. So, when we cut Russians off from Access to Western media, and they can't play video games with their online friends in other countries, or otherwise isolate them, we play into the hands of the Russian propaganda machine. The Russian state controls even more of what they hear and see. So that would be completely the opposite of what we should be hoping for.
I get that Western people want to see companies doing this stuff. But sometimes you have to take off your Western glasses, and think about the stuff objectively.
Thing is, this is the only logical conclusion to take, as going into Russia via an invasion and with force, will only end in an assurance of MAD, as Putin is not the type that likes to lose willingly or admit he's fucked this whole ordeal up from his end, so cutting off supplies and ties to force the people to stand against their gov becomes the only way to go about this.
I've looked at this from multiple angles, and it's either starve the people entirely or go in guns blazing and then everyone dies. I'd rather the whole world be kept intact vs getting one country to stand up against it's gov.
Also, if you truly think Putin is not a sore loser or someone who gives up easily, you've really got to go back and take a second look at the history books, because he really isn't, a show of force from NATO/US means WWIII, and WWIII means MAD (mutually assured destruction).
Yep this aligns with what I think, the measures are more likely to impact regular folks than to force Putin to make the right thing.
I'm personally more interested in the non-entertainment software side of this than gaming. Microsoft, Office, GitHub, Azure, etc.? Does Russia use them? There's always piracy, but you can't really do it with services, and even piracy has its limits. It kind of seems like they've been switchin away from Windows, but I bet Windows is still a pretty big thing, especially outside government.
If MS, Amazon, and Google cut them off completely, they'd be fucked. They can't just flip a switch and shut off only Russian stuff though. If they did it, that would probably also mean that hospitals stop functioning, power plants go offline, and basically they end up back in the stone ages. Not sure how technologically feasible or morally acceptable (in a humanitarian sense) that is.
Russia have their own power sources. The world wishes they could just shut off the power to eliminate their opponents.
"people in Russia cannot apply political pressure to the government" Actually, yes, they can. The entire human history is full of examples of governments being taken down by their own people. And while I agree with you that the government will most likely use this as a propaganda, there is really not much choice here; it is either this or directly attacking them; and I think attacking them would be WAY worse for everybody.
I didn't say that the people can't apply political pressure. I said that they can't do it as well as people in the West can. And people in the West keep pressuring companies to do things that we know with near certainty will actually make the problem worse. People should stop doing that.
Windows, Office or Xbox wont't elucidate the russian people.
Independent news sites, Twitter or Facebook will, which got completely blocked by the russian government, by the way.
In the best case scenario, this will add a little bit to the pressure on Putin and his collaborators. In the worst case scenario, nothing will happen at all.
Regardless, continuing business as usual is definitively the wrong way.
If you're playing a game with Russians, you're not gonna tell them what's going on?
Microsoft isn't just suspending game and console sales in Russia, they're suspending all sales in Russia (Windows, office, cloud, you name it). I think that could participate in a technological neutering of Russia, which needs to happen so long as they remain an international bad actor.
Lets see if they exercise the same actions if China decides to invade Taiwan. Doubt it.
Ha. No company regardless of industry would do the same against China despite what the government does. There's way too much money there. Unless they perform outright genocide and it makes international headlines.
But whether that be Activision Blizzard immediately banning Blitzchung for taking sides on Hong Kong but "standing up for racism" in America, or LeBron James publicly going after a police officer but having no critique when questioned about China, if a company, athlete, or celebrity is tied to China in any way financially, no one is going to do anything that'll cause strain in that business relationship.
Nailed it!
They may not have a choice if that happens. China taking Taiwan is a national security issue as they could cause real issues with the chip market. The US would be forced to come down on them hard if not outright attack. In fact what's happening to Russia could be making China second guess that move. If the world is doing this just for Ukraine what will they do when China is threatening national security? Not to mention China is much more reliant on the world economy unlike Russia. China would be crushed by the sanctions.
China have abused human rights on their own country for decades without sanctions. And Russia is using excuse of national safety (well USA also uses it), so it is almost all similar cases but reaction depends on the impact on their own pockets.
So basically they're just further encouraging Russians to bootleg more Western media (which they're already known to do).. Smart
Microsoft top of the food chain, lets see how many company's do not follow their lead.
The big thing about this is probably the non-entertainment side (although I can't imagine Russian gamers being happy about this either). No more Windows, Office, GitHub, Azure, etc.? That's probably going to hurt, especially in the private sector. I doubt there are Russian alternatives to everything this decision blocks.
I don't think this, Sony or other companies doing these boycots will solve anything, most likely will only impact regular citizens that don't have much if any to do with the war. But I can certainly understand the companies taking these actions to avoid public backlash.
Microsoft shutting down services would have a greater impact than if Sony did, but not because of gaming. Idk if business products like Office or Azure are included in these removals, but if Microsoft removes critical services like that, that would cost Russian businesses millions if not billions of dollars because they have no way to conduct business, and by extension, no tax money to give to the government.
Sure, but still most probably people on the down of the ladder will suffer more than government staff or billionaires.
This is a good first step. Cutting the sales of their products will cut into the money generated within the country. As for the people saying that the innocent people of Russia shouldn't be harmed, the Ukrainian people didn't ask to be invaded. People are dying because Putin has an ego complex. The people need to rise up against his rule.
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