At a meeting with businesses, one of the participants complained to Putin about Western IT companies that formally did not leave Russia, but also do not fully operate — such as Microsoft and Zoom, suggesting partially restricting their activities so that the development of domestic technologies does not suffer.
'We need to squeeze them, I say without any hesitation, because they are trying to squeeze us, we need to reciprocate. We did not expel anyone, did not interfere with anyone, we provided the most favorable conditions for work in our market, and they are trying to squeeze us — we need to reciprocate, act in a mirror manner,' — answered Vladimir Putin, asking to gather data on which Western services are still used by large Russian companies.
In addition, Putin instructed the government to look into foreign marketplaces — according to him, 'this is a loophole, through which anything can be imported in any quantity'. Currently, mainly Chinese platforms like AliExpress and Shein operate in Russia.
Putin also informed businesses that Russia's economy has become the fourth largest in the world in terms of purchasing power parity. Russian authorities will actively support domestic businesses abroad — 'we need to hammer, hammer, hammer'.
He also stated that it is necessary to close all loopholes that allow the use of imported equipment instead of domestic, 'otherwise there will be nothing of our own'.