Originally from The Journal of Eurasian Law (JEL)

I. Introduction

The Russian government has been invading offices of media organizations and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that are critical of state actions. Oftentimes, these raids occur under the guise of cracking down on the use of pirated Microsoft software by these organizations. The authorities, acting alongside Microsoft lawyers, will seize the computers as a part of their “investigation,” effectively shutting down the organization.

This issue attracted a great deal of attention when it was described in a September 11, 2010 article in the New York Times (NYT) that was picked up by a number of other media outlets.1 Microsoft reacted very quickly and publicly to the media reports. The goal of this paper is to outline the details of this particular case and determine whether Microsoft acted effectively to protect human rights.

Part I of this paper will provide background to the discussion that follows. This will be achieved by first examining Russia’s human rights obligations under various international treaties, the rights implicated by this issue, and Russia’s treatment of these rights. Part I will also discuss human rights violations by Russia with respect to dissident media and NGOs, as well as software piracy in Russia. Part II of this paper will examine the specific human rights controversy generated by the NYT article and Microsoft’s responses. This will be achieved by first providing some background on Lake Baikal and the Baikal Environmental Wave. Next, it will examine the seizure of computers by Russian authorities under the pretext of fighting software piracy. Lastly this section will look at the NYT article and Microsoft’s response to the controversy. Part III will examine Microsoft’s actions through the lens of the “Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights: Implementing the United Nations 'Protect, Respect and Remedy' Framework."