Putin Calls for Tit-for-Tat Response Against Firms Like Microsoft and Zoom
Vladimir Putin. X/ @haveigotnews
May 26, 2025 Hour: 1:06 pm
‘We offered more than favorable conditions for them to operate in our market, but now they are trying to strangle us,” he said.
On Monday, Russian President Vladimir Putin called for a tit-for-tat response against companies like Microsoft and Zoom that are trying to “strangle” Russia amid the war with Ukraine.
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“There are those who want to strangle us. I totally agree. I say this without any shame, because they are trying to strangle us. We must respond in kind. That’s all!” he said in response to a proposal by a businessman, who pointed out that both Western platforms continue to operate in the Russian market.
“We didn’t expel or bother anyone. We offered more than favorable conditions for them to operate in our market, but now they are trying to strangle us,” the Russian president added, noting that large Russian companies continue to use services from Western platforms, which results in multimillion-dollar losses for domestic producers.
Putin also said that Moscow will not “roll out the red carpet” for companies that left Russia during the war, such as McDonald’s. He recently stated that merely apologizing is not enough for these companies to return to the Russian market.
“Of course, we must analyze each company’s behavior. Some acted disrespectfully and insulted us, so let them stay where they are… Others donated money to the Ukrainian army. Do we need their apologies? No. That is not enough,” he said.
Putin accused several Western governments of “prohibiting their companies” from working in Russia and warned that returning to the Russian market would not be easy. Recently, state media reported that McDonald’s has applied to register its trademark in Cyrillic characters.
“At present, the application is under review. The chances of it being approved are, of course, very high, since the company retained rights to all of its key trademarks in Russia,” said Alina Akinshina, director of the company Online Patent.
On March 8, 2022, McDonald’s announced it was temporarily suspending operations in Russia and closing its approximately 850 restaurants. Two months later, the company reached a deal to sell its business to franchisee and businessman Alexander Govor, with the agreement that employee jobs would be retained for at least two years.
Although Putin and his economic envoy, Kirill Dmitriev, have addressed this issue multiple times, the Kremlin has denied that any foreign company has formally approached Russian authorities to negotiate a return to the market.
teleSUR/ JF
Source: EFE
