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Vladimir Putin is threatening to 'throttle' US tech firms following an ongoing attack on Ukraine.
The threat comes as Russia launched one of its heaviest attacks yet on Ukraine over the weekend. According to the Associated Press, Ukrainian officials reported nearly 900 drones were fired between Friday and Sunday, targeting primarily civilian targets in Kyiv's residential areas and university dormitories.
Despite growing international pressure and Trump's demand to end the war, it seems the Russian leader is showing no signs of letting up.
Prior to the attack, Donald Trump confirmed he enjoyed a 'good relationship' with Putin. However, the US President took to Truth Social hours after a short trip to D.C. from his New Jersey golf club, posting: “He has gone absolutely CRAZY.”
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He added: "I've always said that he wants ALL of Ukraine, not just a piece of it, and maybe that’s proving to be right, but if he does, it will lead to the downfall of Russia!"
Now, the Russian leader is reportedly setting his sights on US tech giants like Microsoft and Zoom. During a meeting with Russian entrepreneurs, Stanislav Yodkovsky, who runs a local video conferencing company, argued that US companies still had services available in Russia in some capacity.
"Slightly limit the work of services that have left Russia, such as Zoom and Microsoft," Yodkovsky urged.
Local analysts had assessed the international Western competition in the local market which led Yodkovsky to discover that it was costing Russian companies 'billions.' Putin backed the idea, suggesting Russian users should ditch what he called their 'bad habits' of relying on Western tech.
He added: "We provided the most favourable conditions for them to operate here, in our market, and they are trying to strangle us. We need to respond in kind, act as a mirror."
Microsoft and Zoom have both scaled back operations in Russia since the 2022 invasion of Ukraine, as per Business Insider.
In fact, Microsoft suspended new sales in Russia that March and was 'stopping many aspects of our business in Russia in compliance with governmental sanctions decisions.'
Similarly, Zoom banned its partners from selling to Russian government agencies and stopped offering new licenses later that year.
Still, it’s unclear how many Russian users continue to access these platforms, either directly or through similar platforms like Microsoft's video-conferencing tool Teams.
Meanwhile, Trump hasn't held back his frustration with Putin.
"I'm not happy with what Putin's doing. He's killing a lot of people," Trump explained. "I don't know what the hell happened to Putin. I've known him a long time. Always gotten along with him. But he's sending rockets into cities and killing people.
"We're in the middle of talking and he's shooting rockets into Kyiv and other cities. I don't like it at all[...] I don't know what's wrong with him."
