After President Vladimir Putin's 'warning', one of Microsoft's Russian unit may file for bankruptcy

A Russian subsidiary of Microsoft is planning to file for bankruptcy, a report claims. This comes after President Vladimir Putin recently said that foreign service providers like Microsoft and Zoom should be "throttled" to improve domestic software solutions. The planned bankruptcy declaration for one of Microsoft's Russian units was reportedly published via a note on Fedresurs, Russia's official online registry for legally significant corporate information. However, the tech giant has yet to share a comment regarding the potential bankruptcy of its Russian subsidiary or President Putin's remarks. Microsoft maintained critical services in Russia following Moscow’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine, but in June 2022 announced a major reduction of its operations there due to shifts in the economic outlook and their effects on its business.

According to a report by the news agency Reuters, the company had already pulled RT’s mobile apps from the Windows App Store and prohibited ads on Russian state–sponsored media shortly after the invasion. A recent notice posted on Fedresurs indicated that Microsoft Rus LLC plans to file for bankruptcy, the report claimed.

According to the Russian news agency TASS, Microsoft also operates three additional Russian entities in the country, which are: Microsoft Development Centre Rus, Microsoft Mobile Rus, and Microsoft Payments Rus. However, the report doesn’t mention the status of these subsidiaries.


When other major tech companies faced problems in Russia


In 2022, Alphabet-owned Google’s Russian subsidiary filed for bankruptcy after Russian authorities seized its bank account, rendering operations, such as paying local employees, suppliers, and vendors, impossible.