After years of tense situation between Russia and Ukraine, Vladimir Putin has officially announced the launch of a “special military operation” within the country led by Volodymyr Zelensky, on February 24, 2022. A military action that all countries consider an invasion and a declaration of war. This is why all of them are taking numerous sanctions against Russia, which must therefore find ways to retaliate.
Increasing sanctions against Russia
Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine began two weeks ago, more than two million Ukrainians have already fled the country, while the death toll continues to rise on both sides. Difficult, however, to give precise figures, since the various sources communicate very different data. The human toll is counted in any case in the thousands. But to avoid escalation, the countries which support Ukraine, in particular NATO, refuse to intervene militarily.
Many sanctions, essentially economic, are therefore taken against Russia. More than 250 companies, from all sectors and present in the country wherent meanwhile decided to withdraw one after the other, in order to deprive the Russians of their services. While the country’s authorities are cutting off its inhabitants’ access to Western information media and in particular to social networks, the country is increasingly isolated from the rest of the world. From Netflix and TikTok to Microsoft and Adobe, via IBM, departures are multiplying. The inhabitants of the country can therefore no longer access a large number of sites, applications and other software.
To fix this problem, the Russian government is reportedly considering legalizing hacking.
Piracy, soon legal in Russia?
According to the daily Kommersant, the Kremlin is currently preparing to legalize piracy for all Russian people. This would allow budding hackers to continue to use sites and software to which they no longer have access, but the objective would not be offensive: we are not talking here about hacking aimed at harming companies, but allowing them to be used.
This “priority action plan to ensure the development of the Russian economy under the pressure of external sanctions” so should allow for the suspension of criminal and civil penalties against pirates and for the skipping of copyrights. A device already provided for in Russian law, which can authorize the use of “any intellectual property without the consent of the patent holder in the event of an emergency related to the defense and security of the State”.
Obviously, there is no question of touching the companies of the country: hacking will only be allowed when it affects companies from countries that have imposed sanctions against Russia. Suffice to say that this law is not very restrictive, given the number of states that the country has alienated. It remains to be seen whether piracy will indeed be legalized in the days or weeks to come, and what impact it will have on the companies affected. In the meantime, strong acts of resistance and support for Ukraine continue to multiply.
