There was already a response from Microsoft - their NGO discount program was in place, they claim to advise governments to focus enforcement efforts on the producers rather than consumers of pirated software and so on. It's great they've responded again and perhaps more stridently and publicly. But I have a hard time believing this sort of thing helps much with the fundamental problem which is an authoritarian and coercive government. And I think it's naive to expect that it would.
Obviously we can expect nothing from Russia except more of the same. Nevertheless, this kind of press moves the needle as evidenced by the prompt reply from Microsoft.
