Microsoft is Suspending All New Products and Services Sales in Russia

Microsoft is joining the chorus of companies that have stopped offering their products in Russia following the country’s invasion of Ukraine. Microsoft President Brad Smith announced the news a couple of minutes ago and spoke on behalf of the company to “condemn this unjustified, unprovoked, and unlawful invasion by Russia.”

“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,” Smith announced today.

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The Microsoft President didn’t elaborate on the products and services the company would stop selling in Russia. However, Smith mentioning “new sales” suggest that existing Russian customers should be able to continue using the Microsoft services they already paid for.

Microsoft had already taken several measures to protect Ukrainian organizations from Russian cyberattacks, and the company has also removed RT and Sputnik content from its news platforms and Bing search results. Moreover, the company will also increase its support for humanitarian aid in Ukraine and continue to protect Microsoft employees working in the country.

“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”, Smith said today.

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Conversation 10 comments

  • rahewitt

    04 March, 2022 - 10:21 am

    <p>Excellent. Hopefully the days of the Czar are numbered.</p>

  • SRLRacing

    04 March, 2022 - 11:41 am

    <p>"<span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">following the company’s invasion of Ukraine"</span></p><p><br></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">I think Russia is a country for now at least… </span></p>

    • Laurent Giret

      Premium Member
      04 March, 2022 - 12:01 pm

      <p>it is, my bad </p>

  • jeffrye

    04 March, 2022 - 11:45 am

    <p>Awesome to see all of this support for Ukraine and its people!</p>

  • MoopMeep

    04 March, 2022 - 12:01 pm

    <p>Not microsoft but</p><p>sony released gran turismo 7 worldwide today except for in russia</p>

  • jtt888

    04 March, 2022 - 1:41 pm

    <p>And yet selling in China is priority one. </p>

  • John Craig

    04 March, 2022 - 6:34 pm

    <p>Seems a bit soft, only suspending new sales. Let’s be honest, any individual, business or government organisation who wants/needs office 365, teams, Skype, xbox, etc, etc on a subscription basis already has it, so this "suspension" is about as useful as a chocolate tea cup. </p><p><br></p><p>If they truly want to make a difference, cut off the subscriber base. Turn laptops and consoles into expensive bricks. </p>

  • ghostrider

    05 March, 2022 - 10:22 am

    <p>Very soft decision – just ‘new sales’. MS could do a lot more, like put a full geoblock on M365 access and all cloud services. AWS and Google should do the same. MS should block all product activations too. I know this will hurt your average Russian who’s probably protesting against this themselves, but unfortunately, it’s the only way.</p>

  • gavinwilliams

    06 March, 2022 - 9:10 am

    <p>I hope these sanctions continue to much more extreme levels. That they have threatened the world with nuclear war is unforgivable. Russia has to be crushed technologically and maybe one day we will find ourselves so far in front of them, that we can afford to engage them. Russia really needs to be invaded so that it can be denuclearized. After that the Russian ppl can have all the ‘culture’ they want.</p>

  • navarac

    08 March, 2022 - 8:47 am

    <p>Pity that Coca-Cola, Pepsi, McDonalds, Burger King, KFC &amp; Starbucks don’t pull out as well. Bucks rule so hopefully their reputations will suffer and their stocks plummet.</p>

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