In an official blog post on Monday, Senior Vice President and Microsoft General Counsel Brad Smith said that the company was disturbed at news that its own lawyers have possibly been engaged in colluding with the Russian authorities to suppress activists and journalists deemed undesirable by the state. In particular, an article by the New York Times cited a raid on the Baikal Environmental Wave, during which Russian police confiscated a dozen computers under the premise that the group was using stolen Microsoft software:

After the raid, the group reached out to Microsoft’s Moscow office, seeking help in defending itself.

Baikal Wave asked Microsoft to confirm that its software was legal, but the company would not, angering the environmentalists. And Microsoft’s local lawyer in Siberia offered testimony to the police in the case on the value of the software that was said to have been stolen.

Whatever the legitimacy of these claims, said Smith, Microsoft has chosen to err on the side of caution and provide a free blanket software license to all non-governmental organizations in Russia. The license doesn’t even require an application, so all organizations are automatically covered.

Microsoft had previously, in 2008, denied knowledge of practices by the Russian authorities of harassing NGOs and journalists and using the fight against piracy as an excuse. Theoretically, the new blanket license should make it harder for Russian law enforcement to wantonly confiscate computers from advocacy organizations.

Ironically, reports on Tuesday also surfaced that a series of Russian human rights organizations have received letters from regional prosecutors demanding documentation about the groups’ financial and organizational activities. As Elena Panfilova of Transparency International’s Russia branch told Ekho Moskvy radio, the affected organizations include the Center for Development of Democracy and Human Rights, the electoral watchdog Golos, the Moscow Helsinki Group, and Transparency International itself. Why the groups are being examined was unclear, said Panfilova.

In a press-release, the organization, which represents over 600,000 journalists worldwide, described a rising “blitz” of intellectual property lawsuits levied by the Russian government against independent media outlets.

“Under the pretence of concern over piracy issues the government is waging a new campaign to silence its media critics,” said Aidan White, the IFJ General Secretary.

The Russian Union of Journalists (RUJ) has already entered talks with Microsoft, with the aims of either providing free software licenses to the poorest Russian media, or providing the programs at a discount.

The IJF has written to Steve Ballmer, Microsoft’s Chief Executive, asking the company to quickly review the proposal made by RUJ, and to put it into effect as soon as possible. Such a decision would be a win-win situation for Microsoft, according to the press-release.

The RUJ estimates that some 90% of Russian mass-media use pirated software, and that Microsoft loses some $150 million per year due to piracy. Providing 3500 of Russia’s poorest mass-media with free software licenses for a total of 35,000 computers, and arranging a three-year discount deal with other groups would help the company recover lost revenue.

Further Reading:

Computers Seized from Independent Newspaper in Togliatti

Silence in Samara

Piracy Charges to Pressure Critics

On Friday, February 1st, law enforcement officers entered the editorial offices of the Togliatti Review (Tolyattinsky Obozrevatel) newspaper, and confiscated all of the paper’s computers. Pavel Kaledin, the editor-in-chief, told the Sobok@ru news agency that the officers were local specialized forces under the direction of regional Department of Internal Affairs.

In his words, the agents arrived at around 11:00 local time with an investigative warrant, and proceeded to carry out every computer in the office. The agents justified the seizure with claims that pirated software was installed on the machines.

Kaledin noted that some of the paper’s computers had previously used unlicensed programs, but that editors had entered into a contract with MicroSoft in December, 2007. Pirated software is commonly found in Russia, with some experts venturing that 80% of all software in Russia is pirated. Opposition activists have alleged that enforcement is selective, and frequently used by authorities to silence critics of the government.

Kaledin believes that the confiscated computers are a backlash for political criticism published in the paper. The publication regularly features writings by Sergei Andreev, an independent candidate harshly critical of the pro-Kremlin United Russia political party.

The Togliatti Review has been pressured before. Last week, law agencies confiscated a second print-run of the publication. “It took great efforts to return it,” Kaledin said.

The editor-in-chief did not associate the militsiya operation with tragic events in the newspaper’s past. Valery Ivanov, the founder of the Togliatti Review, and Aleksei Sidorov, a lead editor, were murdered in contract-style killings in 2002 and 2003, respectively.