Google to close engineering office in Russia
Acronis, one of best known Russian tech companies, is slowly moving to Estonia: http://www.investinestonia.com/en/about-estonia/news/article...
There are also quite a few who are moving from Russia to Ukraine.
Also remembered this: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-05-28/luxoft-to-move-500-...
Word is that most employees are being offered full relocation (generally to Zurich) which I have to think will be well received.
This goes for both Moscow and St Petersburg.
Putin is increasingly cracking down on any possibility of dissent and threat to his power, whatever the consequences to the Russian economy, and this of course scares foreign companies who work there - even if, with the recent fall of the ruble, Russian talent is even more affordable now.
I'm afraid (I have friends in Russia) that we're going to see more of this.
"Google Inc has plans to shut down its engineering office in Russia amid a crackdown on internet freedoms and a law regarding data-handling practices"
Should they close their offices in USA then ? (yes I'm being sarcastic here)
Might be a coincidence, but they also just announced plans to rent 50'000 square meters of office space in Zurich http://www.handelszeitung.ch/unternehmen/google-investiert-d...
it is worrying what is happening in Russia but much less so than what is going in the USA.
Google, Facbook etc tightly integrated with the nations intelligence agencies, mining the data found there to make secret lists that could result in assassinations, indefinite detention and torture.
Russias actions are for the most part overt, and rightly criticized, what the US does, it does so covertly.
If anyone speaks about the actions that the Us takes in secret they are hunted to the end of the world, and must seek refuge in Russia.
We hear a lot about Russian dissidents leaving Russia because they have their freedom limited. Snowden and Julian Assange have had their freedom limited to much more so than any of the Putin dissidents. (With the exception of the possibility that a couple of them have been assassinated)
Remember that the air plane carrying the President of Bolivia was forced to land and be searched by American allies under the suspicion that Snowden might be on-board. Can you imagine AirForce One being forced to land, and be searched by Russia or China? Becaus they suspected it might be carrying a dissident? I dont think so.
… and just 2 months ago Microsoft closed Qik/Skype development office in Moscow, relocating willing developers to Czech Republic.
Oh my, goodbye sanitizers? There's still work on the kernel sanitizer and a few other things to be done. Disturbing.
Knowing the government's of Russia ways of controlling the media and opposition, I understand and agree with those scared for personal freedoms. On the other hand, I would feel way better if similar law would be imposed in EU, so my data would stay within its borders and be protected by EU laws.
It’s time to recognize the Internet as a basic human right. That means guaranteeing affordable access for all, ensuring Internet packets are delivered without commercial or political discrimination, and protecting the privacy and freedom of Web users regardless of where they live.
Perhaps their executives do not want to have an 'accident' landing Sheremetievo?
They are smart to get out now, probably should have been done earlier
How does engineering office relate to censorship?
I really hope Jetbrains, a Russian company, do not secretly work with the government to plant backdoors in all its IDE offerings :). It's fascinating but uneasy feeling how some of the best tools for software development come from Russia
What else "Sharikovs and Shvonders" would expect?
Stupid propaganda...
This is clearly a pragmatic move that protects them (and their customers), but it feels telling to me that Putin's violent anti-LGBT crackdown - literally threatening the lives of many Google employees, not to mention Google's customers - wasn't sufficient cause to close or relocate their offices.
Will they close their offices in Europe as well when Europe implements the same laws? They're put in a bad light now because Russia does it, but the EU is contemplating the exact same laws.
These laws are not because Russia wants the data for themselves, they are because the US currently has them and they've been shown to be absolutely incapable of dealing with that responsibility in an acceptable fashion.