On 4 March 2022, the Kommersant Publishing House published an
article which stated that the Russian authorities are urgently
preparing measures to support the economy due to ongoing sanctions
pressure. The article suggested that one such measure could be the
abolition of criminal and administrative liability for the use of
pirated software from countries that support sanctions against
Russia. This has resulted in speculation on the Internet that IP
piracy is gaining traction in Russia.
This suggestion has caused concern among Russian IT companies,
which have described the measure as destructive and dangerous, and
indicated that it would have obvious and immediate negative
consequences for import substitution and the domestic IT
business.
