Software produced by Microsoft Corp has been acquired by state
organizations and firms in Russia and Crimea despite sanctions barring
U.S-based companies from doing business with them, official documents
show.
The sum
is relatively small but such software is vital for many firms and
organizations in Russia and Crimea to operate. The database also does
not include private companies, so the scale of the problem could be much
bigger.
The acquisitions, registered on the Russian state
procurement database, show the limitations in the way foreign
governments and firms enforce the U.S. sanctions, imposed on Russia over
its annexation of the Crimea peninsula from Ukraine in 2014.
Some
of the users gave Microsoft fictitious data about their identity,
people involved in the transactions told Reuters, exploiting a gap in
the U.S. company’s ability to keep its products out of their hands.
The
products in each case were sold via third parties and Reuters has no
evidence that Microsoft sold products directly to entities hit by the
sanctions.
All state organizations and state
firms are obliged to disclose purchases they make on the procurement
database. People involved in five of the transactions confirmed to
Reuters the software had been acquired.
The
Reuters review of the database found state entities in Russia and Crimea
that are subject to sanctions have acquired more than 5,000 Microsoft
products worth about 60 million rubles ($1.03 million).
Among entities hit by sanctions
that acquired Microsoft products was Almaz-Antey, manufacturer of the
BUK surface-to-air missile. Dutch prosecutors say a BUK missile brought
down a Malaysian Airlines passenger jet over east Ukraine in July 2014,
though Russia denies its forces shot down the plane.
Other
Microsoft buyers, the database shows, include Glavgosexpertiza, a state
design agency involved in work on a new bridge from Russia to Crimea
and the “Krym” health spa in Crimea owned by Russia’s defense ministry.
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