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Russian state-owned companies and organizations, as well as enterprises in the Crimea, with which US firms are prohibited from doing business due to sanctions, bought Microsoft software, Reuters reports, citing data from the government procurement portal.

As the journalists found out, the Microsoft software, bypassing the sanctions, was bought by a number of companies and institutions. For example, from the fall of 2014 to spring of 2017, the Almaz-Antey aerospace defense concern bought more than 500 Microsoft products, and the federal state budgetary institution Crimea Military Sanatorium of the Russian Defense Ministry bought 109 licenses of Microsoft OLP Windows Server and SQL Server, the administration of the Belogorsky District of the Republic of Crimea in December 2015 purchased 155 Windows licenses, the Basalt Scientific and Production Association, which produces ammunition, bought 101 Windows Server licenses in August 2016, and the Glavgosexpertiza institution bought 180 Microsoft OLP server licenses through an auction.

In total, organizations under sanctions purchased over five thousand licenses for Microsoft software worth $ 1.03 million. This amount is relatively small, but the software of the American corporation is vital for the work of Russian institutions. In addition, investigations by journalists do not take into account the purchases of private companies.

At the same time, the agency did not find evidence that Microsoft was selling products directly to firms or organizations under sanctions: in all cases, software was purchased from various companies. For example, the supplier of software for Almaz-Antey, which produces the Buk air defense system from which, according to investigators, the Malaysian Boeing was shot down over the Donbas in 2014, was OOO “System Software”, registered in Moscow, specified at the Microsoft website as official partner.

According to sources, the Crimean organizations can bypass the ban on the purchase of Microsoft software, specifying a different address when registering the product. So, most often in similar cases addresses are specified in the Krasnodar Krai region. In addition, the vendor and customer may circumvent the restrictions by registering Microsoft software with a subsidiary or parent company of the end user.

As stated in a Microsoft e-mail sent to Reuters, the company strictly follows the requirements of the law and has been reviewing the situation with the delivery of its software in the past weeks to bypass sanctions. The letter also notes that the corporation has the tools to prevent the access of sanctioned companies to its products and services.

Source: NEWSru, astera.ru, 12 October 2017