Amazon said Tuesday that Amazon Web Services (AWS) is no longer accepting new registrations from Russia or Belarus, following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The announcement comes after the Ukrainian government asked Amazon and Microsoft, two of the world’s largest cloud service providers, to suspend their services to their Russian customers.
“Unlike other U.S. technology providers, AWS does not have data centers, infrastructure, or offices in Russia, and we have a long-standing policy of not doing business with the Russian government,” says Amazon. “We have also stopped allowing new AWS registrations in Russia and Belarus. Our biggest customers using AWS in Russia are companies headquartered outside the country with a few development teams there. »
Amazon also announced the shutdown of its video streaming service and e-commerce business in Russia. This means that shipping for all products purchased on Amazon’s e-commerce platforms has been halted and Prime Video will no longer be available to customers in these two countries.
Microsoft packs its bags
Similarly, Microsoft said in a blog post on Friday that it was suspending all new sales of Microsoft products and services in Russia. Including its Azure cloud activities.
On Sunday, Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Digital Transformation Mykhailo Fedorov thanked Microsoft for the suspension and asked it to go further: “We call on you to cease relations with all customers and partners based in Russia, especially by providing Microsoft products like Teams, Skype, GitHub, Microsoft 365”.
Red Hat and SUSE are leaving
Red Hat, the North American Linux giant, owned by IBM, and SUSE, the European open source player, are also suspending their direct sales to Russian groups.
Melissa Di Donato, CEO of SUSE, decided that SUSE would support humanitarian efforts to help refugees and victims of war. This is a particularly difficult time for the company, as a number of its employees have Ukrainian family members.
SUSE is “assessing all of its business relationships in Russia and has suspended all direct sales to Russia.” SUSE is also “observing all economic sanctions” and is prepared to comply with any additional sanctions.
In the United States, Paul Cormier, president and CEO of Red Hat, went further. For Red Hat, which has employees in Ukraine and Russia, it was not an easy decision.
In an email to staff, the CEO says, “Red Hat is discontinuing sales and services in Russia and Belarus (for organizations located or headquartered in Russia or Belarus). This includes ending partner relationships with organizations located or headquartered in Russia or Belarus.”
Additionally, Red Hat is helping its Ukrainian employees and their families move safely to neighboring countries like Poland. The company is also doing what it can to “help those who remain in the country in any way possible”. Red Hat will also support its associates in Russia.
Many other American and European companies have cut their ties with Russia to one degree or another. Including Apple, Oracle, Netflix, TikTok, MasterCard, Visa, SAP and DXC.
Faced with this wave of departures, other players in the world of IT and networks are refusing to leave Russia.
Cloudflare and Akamai remain
Both Cloudflare and Akamai have confirmed that they will continue to operate in Russia, despite the pressures against them.
Both companies argued that if they withdrew their services, they would harm Russian citizens trying to access information from outside the country. They nevertheless claimed to condemn the invasion of Ukraine by Russia.
In a blog post, Cloudflare CEO Matthew Prince acknowledges that the company has received “several calls to end” all of its services in Russia, including from the government. “Our conclusion (…) is that Russia needs more internet access, not less,” he defends.
“As the conflict continues, we have seen a dramatic increase in requests from Russian networks to media around the world, reflecting the desire of ordinary Russian citizens to hear from the world beyond. from those supplied in Russia. »
“Terminating the service indiscriminately would do little to harm the Russian government, but would both limit access to information outside the country and make those who have used us to protect themselves much more vulnerable when they have criticized the government,” he continued.
The CEO adds that if Cloudflare were to cease operations in Russia, the Russian government would “celebrate our closure.” “We absolutely appreciate the spirit of many Ukrainians who are making demands across the tech sector for companies to end their services in Russia. However, when what Cloudflare fundamentally provides is a more open, private, and secure internet, we believe shutting down Cloudflare’s services in Russia altogether would be a mistake. »
Akamai echoed a similar sentiment, explaining that the deliberate choice to maintain its network presence in Russia allows it to continue supporting its customers. “This helps support our international customers, including many of the largest news services, social networks and democratic government institutions, who strive to deliver vital and accurate information to every corner of the world, including citizens Russians,” the company says.
Despite its decision to stay, Akamai specifies suspending its commercial activities in Russia and Belarus, and ending its activities with Russian and Belarusian customers controlled by these states.
The company has made its cybersecurity products and teams available to Ukrainian government agencies to help “keep the country’s citizens protected and connected to the information they need to defend their country,” it said.
Meta updates its social networking features for the occasion
Meta, the social media giant, will now hide information about who follows others, who they follow, and who follows each other for private Instagram accounts based in Ukraine and Russia.
“This means that people who follow private accounts based in Ukraine and Russia will no longer be able to see who those accounts follow, or who follows them. We also do not display these accounts in other people’s follower or follower lists or in our ‘mutual follows’ feature.
Instagram Stories that contain a link sticker pointing to a Russian state-controlled media website will also be demoted and tagged to let people know that they lead to Russian state-controlled media websites, points out Meta.
The measures add to a series of efforts the company announced last week to limit news from Russian state-backed media.