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The Russian government is increasing pressure on global IT companies operating in its market by introducing a mandatory requirement to open branches or representative offices within the country. Such a bill has been approved by both houses of the Russian parliament and signed by president Vladimir Putin. It was part of the instructions that Putin gave to the national government in January to introduce additional requirements for foreign IT companies operating in the Russian segment of the internet. In their plans, the Russian authorities are following the example of Australia, which recently adopted a law obliging search engines to pay media royalties locally. Similar measures have also been applied in Turkey. Under the Russian bill, global IT companies and internet resources with more than 500,000 daily users in Russia will have to establish branches, open representative offices or create legal entities within the territory of Russia starting from 1 January 2022. The preliminary list of companies that will be affected by the ...