The New York Times reports that Russia has been raiding offices of dissenters and using the pretext of searching for pirated Microsoft software. The Redmond-based company apparently fully supports these raids against environmental groups and others.
Compare Microsoft’s actions in Russia to Google’s in China. Though from a Chinese business perspective Google really screwed the pooch with its public embarrassment of the Chinese government, Google at least tried to do the right thing. Microsoft appears blind to the moral repercussions of its cooperation with an increasingly authoritarian Russian government.
More and more I am glad I use free software like Linux.