“We are breeding the cow and they are milking it” - German Klimenko, Vladimir Putin’s new Internet czar on Google, Microsoft, and Apple doing business in Russia
When it comes to high tech, American companies dominate the Russian market and, perhaps not surprisingly, that doesn’t site well with the Russian government which would prefer to see homegrown offerings such as Yandex and Mail.ru get more market traction. The consequence,
according to Bloomberg, is a plan by the Russian government to increase the taxes the American tech giants by 18 percent.
But wait! There’s more! Yep, the Kremlin’s Internet czar,German Klimenko, who’s had his job for just over six weeks, has made it clear that Microsoft and its nasty, capitalist Windows operating system will be out and some 22,000 municipal governments will be switching to Linux forthwith. Why? There are many reasons for such a move the least of which is that it ties Russia to a product that is made by what amounts to the “enemy.”
