Google began blocking corporate services for sanctioned Russian companies

According to the publication’s interlocutors, the blockade began on the night of August 10.

“After blocking the services, company employees cannot access corporate mail, use electronic document management through Google Docs, so there is a risk of reputational and financial loss, almost all important documents and the correspondence remained in Google’s corporate storage,” said one of the sources.

Google Workspace today stores almost a third of all corporate information of Russian companies, says the source of the publication. Many are postponing the transition to alternative workspaces, she said, assuming the US company announces the start of the lockdown well in advance.

One of the sources said that Google sent a mailing list to employees about the need to block in relation to spam messages. The IT market partner believes that the US corporation will continue to use such measures, perhaps even without warning. This creates risks for Russian companies, as they may not have time to back up data to other sites.

At the same time, a source close to Google claims that there were “intentionally unintroduced” changes to access to existing Workspace services in Russia.

Earlier, Australian software developer Atlassian (Trello, Jira) informed users that within 30 days it will start disconnecting accounts registered in the Russian Federation and Belarus from its services. The company announced the reduction of activities in these countries.