Putin's new advisor argues that Windows should be banned in the country and the transition to Linux should be made as quickly as possible!
Vladimir Putin had tried to force all tech companies to keep Russian users' data in local facilities and move all their operations to the country, and now he has help in his plan from his new Internet advisor.
German Klimenko, who is now Putin's advisor on everything Internet-related, has launched a new campaign against tech companies, arguing that they should pay more taxes in Russia, and is also trying to disable Windows.
First of all, the new Internet who was appointed 6 weeks ago wants to support local businesses like Yandex and Mail.ru, so now he is pushing for a bill that would add an 18% tax to tech giants like Apple, Microsoft, and Google.
“When you buy an app on Google Play or the Apple Store anywhere in Europe VAT is charged depending on the payment location, but this does not apply to Russia,” says Putin’s advisor.
Part of his plan to give local businesses an advantage is to ban Windows in the country and then switch to Linux.
The government will be a pioneer in the transition to Linux, says Klimenko, and 22,000 municipal authorities have already prepared to abandon Windows and go the open source route. Although the reason for this transition is not very clear, it is believed that Russia wants to ban Windows because it believes that Microsoft could provide the US government with stolen information from Russian computers running its software.
It's certainly a long way to go before Windows is actually banned in Russia, and it should be noted that 93% of desktop computers in the country use Windows!!!
