Russian President Vladimir Putin told Russian entrepreneurs last night that he intends to block the services of Western information technology companies that still operate in Russia, DPA reported, quoted by BTA.
"They must be limited", the 72-year-old Putin said at the meeting. "The West wants to suffocate Russia, so we must retaliate", he added.
The Russian president promised that precautionary measures will be taken in other sectors of the economy as well.
Putin made these comments after Russian IT entrepreneurs complained that local technology companies were suffering billions of dollars in losses. The sector has been hit hard, as Russia remains heavily dependent on platforms such as Zoom and Microsoft software.
The Russian president also promised to "free citizens from their bad habits."
Moscow has already throttled the internet speeds of many foreign online services. For example, Russians find it difficult to use YouTube without a virtual private network (VPN) because videos take too long to load. At the same time, Russia is developing its own video-sharing platform, RUTube.
Facebook and Instagram, which are owned by the company Meta, Mark Zuckerberg, have been classified as extremist platforms since the beginning of the war in Ukraine and have been blocked ever since.
The authorities have also already shut down many VPN providers to prevent Russians from bypassing restrictions and surfing the Internet freely, DPA notes.