At the behest of Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister Mykhailo Fedorov and economic sanctions, companies such as Apple, Google and Microsoft have limited commercial operations in Russia.
The technology companies that responded to the war in Ukraine and the economic sanctions imposed by the United States on Russia are stopping sales of products, limiting services, renouncing revenues and damaging Russia’s access to advanced technology.
Apple, Google, SAP, Microsoft, Oracle, Dell and Meta are among the companies announcing changes in their business plans in Russia in response to the country’s invasion of Ukraine, sanctions and the insistence of one of Ukraine’s top officials.
Google cut advertising revenue to Russia-backed state media and increased security measures for Ukrainian users and websites through the expansion of its Project Shield campaign. Apple and Microsoft paused sales of new products in Russia. Oracle and SAP suspended operations in Russia, and Meta restricted access to Russian state-controlled media Russia Today and Sputnik. According to the market research firm IDC, total spending on Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in Russia in 2021 was about 50 billion dollars.
The economic sanctions imposed by the U.S. . Russia is also causing US companies like VMware and the German enterprise software company SAP to stop some of their services to the country, including the suspension of new sales transactions with sanctioned Russian customers.
In a press statement, Brad Smith Vice President of Microsoft said "Like the rest of the world, we are horrified, angry and saddened by the images and news of the war in Ukraine and we condemn this unjustified, unprovoked and illegal invasion of Russia".
Mykhailo Fedorov, Ukraine’s minister of digital transformation, is also urging tech companies to increase pressure on Russia. He has mounted a vigorous social media campaign targeting American tech companies and believes they should do more in response to Russia’s aggression.
Fedorov’s drive to stop services of technology companies to Russia Fedorov is calling on large technology companies on social networks and requesting their support to stop operations, product sales and services to Russia.
Apple was one of several companies that Fedorov highlighted on Twitter, noting that it had contacted the CEO of Apple, Tim C., to ask him to support US sanctions against Russia and to block the company’s app store for Russian residents. Although the company stopped product sales, it did not block access to the App Store in Russia. "No more @Apple product sales in Russia!" Fedorov tweeted. " Now, @tim_cook, let’s finish the job and block access to @AppStore in Russia. They kill our children, now they eliminate their access!".
Fedorov also used social media to ask SpaceX CEO Elon Musk to activate the Starlink satellite Internet service in Ukraine, which Musk did.
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