Microsoft briefly turned off Indian company’s cloud, perhaps due to EU sanctions on Russia
- Reference: 1754282136
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2025/08/04/nayara_energy_microsoft_india/
- Source link:
This story starts on July 18th when the European Union [1]approved a fresh set of sanctions aimed at making it harder for Russia to continue its war against Ukraine. Deep in the [2]fine print of the sanctions order is a mention of an oil refinery operated by Nayara Energy in the Indian city of Vadinar, which the EU says is 49 percent owned by the Russian State oil company Rosneft.
“Nayara Energy is involved in an economic sector providing a substantial source of revenue to the Government of the Russian Federation,” the document states. That activity means Nayara is subject to EU sanctions.
[3]
Nayara Energy protested the sanctions in a [4]strongly-worded statement that asserts “This unilateral move by the European Union is founded on baseless assertions, representing an undue extension of authority that ignores both international law and the sovereignty of India.”
[5]
[6]
At some point after the EU announced its sanctions, Microsoft denied service to Nayara Energy – [7]reportedly removing access to hosted Teams and Outlook data.
That action saw Nayara seek a court order to have Microsoft restore service. In a [8]court filing [PDF] complained of “unilateral decision taken by the respondent [Microsoft], whereby they have stopped providing the services to the petitioner [Naraya].”
[9]
Nayara Energy called for the court to direct the software giant “to continue to provide the services under the Microsoft Business and Service Agreement (MBSA).”
Two days later, a [10]second filing [PDF] states that Microsoft restored services.
Reuters last week [11]reported that Nayara Energy signed with Indian company Rediff, which provides business-grade hosted email services.
[12]Microsoft leaves Pakistan but promises customers won't notice the change
[13]European pols wave their hands about digital sovereignty with broad but vague plan
[14]India gets its turn on the Trump tariff train: 25% levy to start Friday
[15]India eats China's lunch in US smartphone manufacturing
Local media have [16]pointed out that this incident neatly illustrates the risk of using technology providers who are beholden to the laws of other jurisdictions.
Ironically, businesses and governments across European Union [17]worry about the same risks , leading hyperscalers like [18]AWS , Microsoft, and [19]Google to take steps to ensure their European operations are out of reach of American laws. Such moves haven’t satisfied some European buyers, as France-based cloud OVH recently [20]leaked news of talks with the EU over creation of a sovereign cloud.
[21]
All of which leaves us in the odd situation of an EU attempt to defend Ukraine’s sovereignty being seen to threaten India’s, and also boosting demand for sovereign cloud.
What a time to be alive. ®
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[1] https://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/press/press-releases/2025/07/18/russia-s-war-of-aggression-against-ukraine-eu-adopts-18th-package-of-economic-and-individual-measures/
[2] https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A32025D1478&qid=1754279006665
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offprem/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2aJCEvdJAbqbT_UXxyh4_wwAAAJE&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[4] https://www.nayaraenergy.com/storage/news-rooms/July2025/PKeZvPqJT3Gjc589oGQf.pdf
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offprem/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aJCEvdJAbqbT_UXxyh4_wwAAAJE&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[6] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offprem/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33aJCEvdJAbqbT_UXxyh4_wwAAAJE&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[7] https://www.reuters.com/world/india/russia-backed-nayara-taps-indian-it-firm-after-microsoft-suspends-service-2025-07-29/
[8] https://regmedia.co.uk/2025/08/04/supplied_delhi_high_court.pdf
[9] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offprem/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aJCEvdJAbqbT_UXxyh4_wwAAAJE&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[10] https://regmedia.co.uk/2025/08/04/supplied_delhi_high_court_dismissal.pdf
[11] https://www.reuters.com/world/india/russia-backed-nayara-taps-indian-it-firm-after-microsoft-suspends-service-2025-07-29/
[12] https://www.theregister.com/2025/07/03/microsoft_quits_pakistan/
[13] https://www.theregister.com/2025/06/06/europe_international_digital_strategy_nothingburger/
[14] https://www.theregister.com/2025/07/30/trump_tariffs_india/
[15] https://www.theregister.com/2025/07/28/smartphone_china_india/
[16] https://www.medianama.com/2025/08/223-microsoft-blocks-nayara-data-india
[17] https://www.theregister.com/2025/04/17/us_hyperscaler_alternatives/
[18] https://www.theregister.com/2025/06/03/aws_european_sovereign_cloud/
[19] https://www.theregister.com/2025/05/21/google_sovereign_cloud_updates/
[20] https://www.theregister.com/2025/06/20/ovhcloud_boss_talks_up_ec_discussions/
[21] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offprem/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33aJCEvdJAbqbT_UXxyh4_wwAAAJE&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[22] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
We should move them to outsource to Russia. They would cripple their war efforts even more.
Not the first and probably not the last
We can hope this would be a wake-up call to those who integrate everything into the Microsoft ecosystem without any seeming thought on the matter, and therefore encourages them to explore alternative providers and reduce reliance on just one vendor.
...
Of course not!
Re: Not the first and probably not the last
They would not listen,
They're not listening still.
{you know the rest}
Perfect proof
It was needed that Microsoft proved that anything your company relies on which is tied to Microsoft's services can and will be turned off at the whim of Microsoft or by them being instructed to do so via an executive order. Let's hope this starts to focus some minds here at the CTO level in Europe.
US Cloud Services? Just say NO!
Gaslighting
This fragment from the article should serve well to underline the fact that EU companies are being deceived by empty promises:
...leading hyperscalers like AWS, Microsoft, and Google to take steps to ensure their European operations are out of reach of American laws...
A company which is headquartered in the USA CANNOT put their EU operations out of reach of American laws. It's that simple. Every statement to that effect is dishonest.
Re: Gaslighting
Every statement to that effect is dishonest.
Of course it is, glaringly so.
And?
A good part of the problem is that Europe et al constantly [1]pussyfoot with respect to this (and many other things), clearly showing that Chamberlain's lesson has indeed been forgotten.
Let's start by calling things by their names:
Every statement to that effect is dishonest utter bullshit and an insult our intelligence.
Polite?
Certainly not.
But neither is getting permanently shat upon.
.
[1] https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/pussyfoot#
Re: Gaslighting
Or in this case, EU laws.
Re: Gaslighting
Sorry... This is wrong
A company which is headquartered in the USA CANNOT put their EU operations out of reach of American laws
Any company that operates in the USA is subject to US laws all over the world. You pay tax to uncle sam then you can't escape their laws.
Lucky someone caved quickly, before India cut off it's outsourcing to Europe.