Microsoft scraps Russian schools tablet program over Rotenberg blacklisting

Microsoft has suspended plans to provide tablets to Russian schools under a deal expected to benefit a textbook publisher headed by Kremlin ally Arkady Rotenberg, citing “concerns” over Western sanctions, a news report said.

According to an agreement signed in late September, Microsoft would “provide free of charge, to [publisher] Prosveshcheniye, the same type of technical assistance that [it] provides at no cost to thousands of schools and publishers worldwide,” Microsoft said in a statement cited Saturday by the New York Times.