In December last year, President Obama signed a decree on the expulsion of the U.S. 35 Russian diplomats. At the same time, the U.S. government banned American companies to maintain any business relations with the Main intelligence Directorate of the General staff of the armed forces and Federal security service. This ban has created a serious problem for Apple, Microsoft and other American IT companies.
Russian legislation requires that all products that use encryption, has been certified by the FSB. This list includes smartphones, tablets, laptops and even cars equipped with navigation systems and communications.
As stated by Reuters, the President of the American chamber of Commerce in Moscow, Alexis Rodzianko, the President Obama meant that the Russian market “is dead for electronics.”
“Every second Russian has an iPhone or iPad, so [in the case of maintaining the sanctions] they will all switch to the products of the company Samsung,” he explained.
According to the lobbyists, introduced tough measures could completely “bury” the supply to Russia of iPhones, iPads, Macs, and other American computer hardware and software, as well as vehicles, medical equipment and various technological hardware.
In January, the business groups appealed to the state Department, Commerce Department and U.S. Treasury Department, asking for a partial mitigation of the established prohibitions. Publication failed to establish what the company was involved in lobbying. Microsoft and Cisco the inquiry was answered, he was not asked to change the sanctions, Cisco said that the company has requested from the Ministry of Finance for clarification about bans.
The efforts of the lobbyists were successful, and February 2, the U.S. Treasury officially “made an exception” for American technology companies, allowing them, as before, to request and obtain relevant certificates from the FSB.
The authorities of the Russian Federation has demanded from foreign companies access to the source code of their programs, including firewalls, antivirus and other software that contains cryptography. This requirement is necessary to fulfill that company’s products sold in Russia. The requirements of the authorities has grown considerably in the last three years.
Another goal of the Russian authorities, as noted by Reuters, is to try to find in source code foreign programs vulnerability. The majority of American companies operating in Russia, agree to such terms. The exception, as stated, was the company Symantec, who refused to grant Russian officials access to the source code.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Congress continues to investigate the possible intervention of Russia in last year’s election of the American President. A similar investigation was conducted by FBI. Russia denies involvement in the cyber attacks during the presidential elections in the United States.
