SAP continues to support Russian companies and public organizations as war rages in Ukraine.
The German software giant has sold enterprise systems to Sberbank, Aeroflot and other Russian firms but, despite the widely condemned invasion of Ukraine, it continues to support such facilities.
In a statement late Friday, SAP CEO Christian Klien said, “We will continue to serve our existing customers within our contractual commitments and as export control sanctions and restrictions permit, but we will not be accepting new orders or soliciting new business.”
The statement follows specific calls from Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Mykhailo Fedorov to end SAP support for Russian organizations as well as software sales.
“It’s not enough! The bloody invader army continues to kill our civilian population. We ask you to stop supporting SAP products, as long as Russian tanks and missiles attack Ukraine,” he said. he declared. on Twitter.
In 2018, SAP said Sberbank rolled out its SuccessFactors HR software to a workforce of 230,000 employees, the largest completed cloud project in Russia, according to the EU’s biggest software company. Sberbank is majority-owned by the Russian state.
Aeroflot, Russia’s main airline, said it was rolling out a range of SAP systems in 2012, including the SAP HANA platform.
SAP has declined to confirm that it has ended support for these specific installations.
US data warehouse firm Teradata and analytics software firm SAS said they continued to support Sberbank.
Meanwhile, US enterprise software giant Oracle sold Sberbank a Siebel CRM system for 170,000 users, it disclosed in January last year.
Oracle posted on Twitter saying, “On behalf of Oracle’s 150,000 employees worldwide and in support of both the elected government of Ukraine and the people of Ukraine, Oracle Corporation has already suspended all operations in the Russian Federation. “.
So far, the $40 billion-revenue tech giant has refused to respond to The register questions about whether it continues to support implementations, including remote advice and software updates, following Russia’s military aggression in Ukraine.
Microsoft also did not respond to questions about its support for Russian companies.
On Friday, Redmond announced it would suspend all new sales of products and services in Russia.
However, Microsoft hasn’t said whether it will continue to support existing Russian deployments, including major food retailer Magnit. Last year, the company said it was implementing Microsoft’s Azure, Microsoft 365 and Power BI cloud services.
In December 2020, Microsoft said it had worked with Sberbank to develop an AI system that it says teaches “robots to manipulate unstable-shaped physical objects almost the same way humans do.”
Under the current sanctions, the EU has banned the supply or transfer of aircraft parts and equipment to Russia and all related repair, maintenance and financial services. It also tightened existing sanctions on “dual-use goods” to target Russia’s military-industrial complex, limiting access to drones and drone software, encryption software, as well as semiconductors and advanced electronics.
Meanwhile, the United States has also tightened sanctions. He imposed restrictions on Russian banks – including Sberbank, which accounts for around 30% of Russia’s retail banking sector – such as preventing them from transacting through the US system. The sanctions are designed to restrict Sberbank’s access to US dollar transactions.
The United States has also restricted exports of semiconductors, encryption software, lasers and aircraft equipment to Russia. Companies like AMD, Intel, TSMC, Dell, HP, Lenovo and HPE comply with export controls. ®
