Google Closing Its Engineering Offices In Russia

Google is reportedly pulling its engineers from Russia to avoid increasing restrictive Internet laws of the country. However, the Internet giant will continue to focus on other aspects of business such as sales, user support and marketing. 

"We are deeply committed to our Russian users and customers and we have a dedicated team in Russia working to support them," said a Google spokesperson in a statement.

The relocation of engineers is because of a new law that requires information on Russian citizen to be stored inside the country borders rather than data centers located in other countries. 

Google is not the first company to shut down its operations in Russia. In September Adobe had to shut down its office in Russia as well. Google has been doing operations for engineering in Russia for the past eight years, but reports suggest Russian officials have started to become less welcoming for foreign tech companies. 

Russian officials have been asked to avoid Gmail. According to a recently considered legislation, they should not discuss state matters on non-state run email accounts.

Another law recently passed that requires Russian bloggers with 3,000 followers or more to register personal information with the government. 

Google smartphone operating system Android has 85 percent of Russia's market.

Yesterday, Google announced that Google News is closing in Spain.