- Russian President Vladimir Putin said Russia needs to “strangle” Western tech companies still operating in the country. The comments come after a Monday meeting at the Kremlin where a businessman claimed Russian consumers are still using Microsoft and Zoom products in the country.
Many Western companies pulled out of Russia following its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, but a Russian businessman claims two American tech companies’ products are still being used by some, and Vladimir Putin wants them gone.
During a meeting with business leaders at the Kremlin Monday, Russian President Vladimir Putin said it was time to get tough on Western tech companies whose products are still capturing consumers in Russia.
“You just have to strangle them. I agree completely,” he said, according to Business Insider. “I say it without any embarrassment, because they are trying to strangle us. We need to reciprocate. That’s it.”
The tough rhetoric comes after Russian businessman Stanislav Yodkovsky, who runs a Russian videoconferencing company, claimed during the Kremlin meeting that Zoom and Microsoft are still being used in the country. Yodkovsky added that analysts have said Western companies are costing Russian companies “billions” by continuing to operate in the country. Yodkovsky urged Putin to “slightly limit the work of services that have left Russia, such as Zoom and Microsoft.”
Microsoft began its retreat from Russia in 2022 and has further severed its connection to the country over the past several years, including by no longer renewing software licenses for Russian customers and restricting access to its cloud services.
Zoom, for its part, installed some restrictions in 2021, when it prevented companies with state-owned assets from using its product. Yet in 2023, it was fined 115 million rubles ($1.43 million) by Russia for operating in the country without opening a local office.
A spokesperson for Microsoft declined to comment to Fortune. Zoom did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Putin said during the meeting at the Kremlin that Russian consumers need to break their “bad habit” of using Western tech companies’ products.
“We provided the most favorable conditions for them to operate here, in our market, and they are trying to strangle us. We need to respond in kind, act as a mirror,” Putin added.
In the meeting, Putin reportedly added that Russia will not be “rolling out a carpet” for Western companies looking to return to the country, and the government will develop a program for those companies looking to return “but only insofar as it aligns with the protection of our own business interests,” the RT reported.
Some 1,000 companies have said they would cut back their operations in Russia more than the minimum required by international sanctions, according to a study by the Yale School of Management. Some of the U.S. tech companies that have withdrawn from the country include Salesforce, HP, and Dell.
Still, some U.S.-based companies continue to operate in the country without changes, according to Yale. Among the companies continuing to sell to and operate in Russia are San Francisco–based cloud platform Cloudflare and monetization platform Patreon, according to Yale.
Cloudflare and Patreon did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
This story was originally featured on Fortune.com
