Mintsifra will study the refusal of Microsoft to renew licenses for companies from Russia

The Ministry of Digital Development of Russia understands the situation with the statement Microsoft Maksut Shadayev, Minister of Digital Development, told TASS that the corporation will no longer renew licenses for Russian companies after September 30.

Information that the American corporation will soon stop to renew licenses for Russian companies, appeared on August 10. Information and analytical agency TelecomDaily wrote about this decision with reference to a letter from the company’s technical support. The Russian department is investigating “to what extent this is a confirmed fact,” Shadayev said.

“Everyone had a year and a half to prepare, everyone understood that this was coming, and many in this sense are switching to Russian Linux-based operating systems,” the minister said, adding. that in Russia there is an alternative to software from Microsoft.

As Dmitry Miroshnik, Director of the Department of Product Business Support of the Sales Development Department of Softline Group of Companies, explained to Vedomosti earlier, the change concerns exclusively direct sales through the website. Microsoftif previously the customer purchased and paid for the services of the company directly on the website of the copyright holder using a bank card. These changes do not concern partner channels, he assured.

After non-renewal of subscriptions, cloud services (mail, video conferencing service) included in the Microsoft 365 tariff plans will stop working, Timur Badretdinov, head of infrastructure solutions at Sissoft, said. Offline Office suites included in Microsoft 365 plans may continue to work for some time after subscriptions are not renewed, but will stop receiving updates and will require verification of an active subscription, he added.

The technology corporation suspended the sale of new products and the provision of services in Russia after the start of a special operation in February 2022. In the summer of that year, the company limited the ability for Russian users to install Windows 10 and Windows 11. In April of this year, Microsoft completely stopped warranty service for Xbox game consoles in Russia .

Earlier, Deputy Foreign Minister of Russia Mikhail Galuzin said that Microsoft has stained itself with concrete steps to the detriment of Russia, as well as providing support to Ukraine. According to him, the corporation regularly accuses Russia of organizing cyber attacks on Ukrainian resources, without providing any evidence, while the corporation hushed up “facts of systemic cyber sabotage” against Russia’s critical infrastructure.