Microsoft may face serious losses due to restrictions of software sales to Russian companies because of sanctions, Russian Communications Minister Nikolay Nikiforov has told reporters on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos.
“I believe that Russian software can fully replace it. Of course, it will need further investments and development, but such cases of politically driven sanctions, I think, will first of all deliver a blow to the American economy. It may result in Microsoft losing a market worth several billion dollars in terms of corporate and state-controlled clients in this country,” the minister said.
The Russian side sees no practical sense in the US sanctions, as both American companies and their European partners are suffering losses, the minister added.
“It is a completely unproductive story, if we look at effectiveness of imposing the sanctions; we do not comprehend who wants what using such tools, apart from causing damage to their own companies that have been working successfully in our market for decades,” Nikiforov says.
It was reported earlier that two official distributors of Microsoft software, Merlion and RRC companies, imposed restrictions on software sales for more than 200 companies in Russia. They explained this was done because of the sanctions.
Several days ago, the Russian defense ministry made a decision to switch all ministry’s computers to Astra Linux operating system which was fully developed in Russia by RusBITech, Moscow.