"Putin Wants to Push Microsoft Out of Russia in Battle with U.S.", 1 Nov 2016

In his battle with the United States, Vladimir Putin has a new target — Microsoft. The Kremlin is backing a plan to rid government offices and state-controlled companies of all foreign software, starting with...replacing Microsoft products with Russian ones... Russians...also moved toward blocking LinkedIn... [Senior U.S.] intelligence official said Putin is going after Microsoft [as] the biggest American name in information technology and because it's easy to convince Russians that the company works with the U.S. intelligence community..."It is a signal that the Russians really mean business now about nationalizing the internet and making sure they can create their own secure content." Microsoft [said] it doesn't collaborate with the government on...spying."...We don't work with any government to spy on others, and we never would[.]"  Schiff said [:] "So as part economic message, part a shot across the bow, part attack on American IT, part protectionism ... all...very consistent with the kind of escalation we are seeing from Putin."...U.S. intelligence officials...believe that any attempt to ban Microsoft will be limited because its products are too integrated into Russia's IT infrastructure.