Microsoft and Google join the technological veto against Russia

The list of large companies that decide to stop the sale of their products and services in Russia as a gesture of protest against their military invasion of Ukraine It does not stop growing. This Friday has been the technological giants microsoft and Google who have announced that they will follow that path.

In a release published this Friday, the president of Microsoft, Brad Smithhas confirmed that “all new sales of products and services in Russia will be suspended”, although it has clarified that the contracts already signed with Moscow they will not be canceled by that decision. Belarusally of kremlin in its war operation against Ukraine, it would not be affected by this blockade for the time being.

Although the company has not given more details, its decision could have a strong impact on all the people and companies that use its services such as Windows, Office, the video game console Xbox o Azure, its cloud computing services, key to supporting the digital architecture of many of them.

Google pauses ads

Google It has also announced this Friday that “in light of the extraordinary circumstances” that are being experienced in Eastern Europe “it will pause” the sale of advertisements in Russia. Property of Alphabet, Google had been accused by the Kremlin of allowing the publication of ads about the war. Advertising accounts for more than 85% of the company’s income, which in previous days had already withdrawn the monetization of videos from Russian media such as RT in Youtube.

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Microsoft and Google thus follow in the footsteps of other large companies in the technology sector such as Manzana, which paused the sale of its devices on March 1. His decision has been taken “in coordination” with the sanctions imposed by the governments of United Statesthe European Union (EU) and the United Kingdom.

In recent weeks, Microsoft has assisted the Ukrainian government in detecting and responding to cyber attacks launched by the Kremlin. “Since the beginning of the war, we have acted against Russian positioning, destructive or disruptive measures against more than 20 Ukrainian government, telecommunications and financial sector organizations,” the statement said. “We have publicly raised our concern that these attacks on civilians violate the Geneva Convention.”