Sony ended all operations in Russia and dissolved its local subsidiary, part of moves both within the country and without to cut Russians off from the wider world.
The Japanese tech company has operated in Russia since 2006, but after the 2022 invasion of Ukraine began scaling back operations, halting console shipments and closing online and brick-and-mortar stores.
Moscow is adding to its own isolation, blocking all calls on the messaging apps WhatsApp and Telegram in what it called an effort to fight crime and terrorism: The apps are end-to-end encrypted and thus their calls cannot be easily monitored by the government. Since the war, Russia has clamped down significantly on its previously largely unrestricted internet.
