Russia uses Microsoft to suppress dissent

“It was late one afternoon in January when a squad of plainclothes police officers arrived at the headquarters of a prominent environmental group here. They brushed past the staff with barely a word and instead set upon the computers before carting them away,” Clifford J. Levy reports for The New York Times. “Taken were files that chronicled a generation’s worth of efforts to protect the Siberian wilderness.”

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“The group, Baikal Environmental Wave, was organizing protests against Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin’s decision to reopen a paper factory that had polluted nearby Lake Baikal, a natural wonder that by some estimates holds 20 percent of the world’s fresh water,” Levy reports. “Instead, the group fell victim to one of the authorities’ newest tactics for quelling dissent: confiscating computers under the pretext of searching for pirated Microsoft software.”

“Security officials say the inquiries reflect their concern about software piracy, which is rampant in Russia,” Levy reports. “Yet they rarely if ever carry out raids against advocacy groups or news organizations that back the government.”

Levy reports, “As the ploy grows common, the authorities are receiving key assistance from an unexpected partner: Microsoft itself. In politically tinged inquiries across Russia, lawyers retained by Microsoft have staunchly backed the police.”

Full article here.

MacDailyNews Take: Please read: Mac users should not buy Microsoft software or hardware.

[Thanks to MacDailyNews Readers “Fred Mertz” and “Wandering Joe” for the heads up.]