On July 1, Russia’s President Vladamir Putin signed a bill which will require foreign IT companies to open offices in Russia into law. This clearly means that any information and technology company which wants to operate in the European nation will have to set up offices in Russia’s territory first.
This new development has already been published by the government of Russia on its official channels of communications.
Following these publications, notable voices in the tech sector are viewing this move as the latest attempt to have increased control of big tech by Russia. On its side, Russia claims that the move is aimed at strengthening internet control and reducing dependence on foreign companies in the country.
Russia has been slapping tech companies especially social network companies with fines for failing to delete content from their platform which Moscow terms its illegal. Some of the affected companies include widely used search engine Google and social media company Twitter Inc. (TWRT).
