How does that work exactly ? You still have to buy the product, right ? Or is this an open invitation to steal stuff and bring it to Moscow ?

So, Putin is trying to get around all the bans. Twitter is fined ? Great, but Twitter can't pay the fine because Russia is cut off of SWIFT. Besides, Twitter couldn't care less.

Zuckerberg is banned from entering Russia indefinitely ? Pah, he can barely get to Washington D.C. for a congressional hearing.

Of course Putin is going to encourage piracy, he supports hackers.

Supporting piracy is fantastic, it totally destroys any native tech industry.

There is no market for a home grown Office suite if you can use MS Office for free and no sense in writing any software I'd your customers assume they can steal it.

No point in studying CS in Russia, may as well get a job in fast food.

Can't see that having any long term economic or strategic effects

No point in studying CS in Russia, may as well get a job in fast food

Probably many CS professors have fled Russia by now, so the course offerings might be a thin on the ground.

Given the western progressive taxation ensures that no matter what you do, you make broadly the same money, there is not much incentive to study CS anywhere...

"is this an open invitation to steal stuff and bring it to Moscow ?"

Yes. They are getting tired of companies no longer selling to them, so they've given up on trying to convince them to change their minds. It won't help much; they already had piracy, and all the problems it had remain.

Back in the days of the Cold War the Western countries imposed similar tech embargo on the Soviet Union known as CoCom, meaning you couldn't export stuff such as a Commodore 64 beyond the Iron Curtain. But with many technologies the embargo was two-sided on an ideaological basis. The communist party deemed it evil to use gadgets made by the capitalist pigs, thus even if you somehow managed to smuggle a computer across the border without the Western customs noticing, the local police could still confiscate it from you.

Trade control details are a bit complicated, but the message they want to send with this rule is something like this: You don't have to be afraid of suffering any repercussions from the Russian state if you keep using Western tech, it's only the West that forbids you from doing so simply because you are a Russian, so you should be mad at them, not us.

That alone doesn't mean that Russia would encourage theft, it's up to you how you acquire the products as long as the theft itself doesn't take place on Russian soil. Though basically all of the post-Soviet states on the Russian borders are known to be cooperating in creative ways. For example after the first wave of credit card bans by Mastercard and VISA, people flocked to Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan by the thousands to open a local bank account and get a new card with it.

"as long as the theft itself doesn't take place on Russian soil"

I suppose that would be breaking the cronies' monopoly.

[1]Putin Khuylo, the Mariachi version!

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jVbFps__Ov8

The fines are completely pointless; I cannot see Airbnb, Twitch, UPS, or Pinterest coughing up a single rouble or even bothering to acknowledge that they have been imposed. This is the sort of political grandstanding you see when a country (or in this case, a Putin) is completely powerless to impose their will on other organisations.

I've banned Putin from my treehouse

Not pointless. The fines don't get paid so next they can declare the firms to be operating illegally and in contempt of court.

If they're not operating there there doesn't seem to be much point in that.

Of course any Russian citizens using their facilities will be aiding and abetting or whatever similar consept Russian law might have.

Even if these fines were paid, they're paultry sums that wouldn't even cover the lawyer fees.

If they're trying to send a message, it's about as effective as a strongly worded letter to the local council. It's not even worth the cost of the stamp, letter and council worker to read and ignore it.

Why do they do business with a terrorist state?

No sympathy here.

Plenty of places could arguably fit that "terrorist" definition that companies happily do business with,

e.g. ask many a Tibetan or Uyghur about China and you will not get a happy response.

Lots of big companies will have rainbow flags here, there & everywhere yet happily trade with various oil rich states that treat gays (and women, whatever orientation) horrendously.

Corporatism & hypocrisy go together frequently

Though, there are counter arguments for why a presence may be retained, in this example, many Russians are against the war, but suffering the consequences so they suffer for something that is not their fault when companies pull out

Aside - as a UK person I'm happy to see Putin make such an effort to financially destroy "his" country, as by comparison it makes the UKs self inflicted (though lots of suggestions some prime movers in Brexit not exactly unfamiliar with receiving Russian cash / other help) economy destroying efforts not look quite as bad.