Ministry says against responsibility for heads of leaving firms

MOSCOW, Mar 11 (PRIME) -- Russia’s Digital Development Ministry opposes introduction of an administrative or criminal responsibility for the heads of local offices of foreign companies that suspended or halted their activities in the country, according to the ministry’s statement released on Friday.

If such foreign companies do not resume their activities, their niches will be taken by Russian solutions and products and products of the companies from the countries that have not restricted work in the country.

The Prosecutor General’s Office said earlier that it toughened control over the companies that suspended operations in Russia.

“We offer vendors to start an immediate discussion of the terms of a step-by-step transfer to the Russian IT companies of technical support of the information systems components and infrastructure objects, whose disruptions can result in serious outages of the life-support systems. The Digital Development Ministry is ready to provide necessary assistance in arrangement of this interaction,” the ministry said.

The authority said that it does not welcome the idea of legalization of pirated software, but if a customer makes a prepayment for the future periods, support tolerance to its exploitation till  replacement by Russian competitive analogues.

“In case of resumption of activities on the Russian territory, the revenue shortfall during the period of exploitation of the software can be repaid to the foreign companies,” the ministry said.

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