The new measures cut the duration of loans that can be offered to Russian financial firms subject to sanctions to 14 days from 30 days and to 60 days from 90 days for Russian energy companies on a US sanctions list. The second distributor, RRC, said in its notification, seen by Reuters, that "serious restrictions are being introduced" on Microsoft orders from firms subject to US sanctions. Microsoft did not respond to Reuters questions about whether it had initiated the restrictions introduced by two of its Russian distributors. One, Softline, declined to comment on whether it had introduced stricter payment rules. They include major Russian companies such as oil giant Rosneft, natural gas producer Novatek and Sberbank, Russia's biggest lender.

Source: bd News24 January 22, 2018 07:30 UTC