How Russia Uses Microsoft to Crack Down on Dissenters

Russia is suddenly very concerned with the rampant pirating of Microsoft software—but apparently only in dissidents' computers, which the Kremlin is confiscating at a breathtaking clip. Typical is an environmental group that protested Vladmir Putin's decision to re-open a factory that had polluted a lake. One afternoon, police appeared and seized all their computers—which contained legal Microsoft software and a lifetime's worth of environmental data.

Moscow's getting an unlikely hand from Microsoft, reports the New York Times in a lengthy look, which has filed suits against raid victims. Microsoft says it only acted because Russian law requires it, but it's landed solidly in the delicate dance of tech giants with less-than-democratic states: Afraid to hurt business yet under pressure to push for human rights, Microsoft says it's now reviewing its policies in Russia.
(More Microsoft stories.)