Ponosov's case

Representatives of Microsoft's regional dealer stated that the employee who had sold the computers with unlicensed copies of Windows was imposed a fine of 10,000 rubles (about 380 US dollars).

[7] During a press conference in the Kremlin on 1 February 2007, Russian president Vladimir Putin said: “If the legislation which, as I see, is not very adequate, needs to be amended, then we will reflect on this.

But to grab someone for buying a computer somewhere and start threatening him with prison, is complete nonsense, simply ridiculous.”[8] On 5 February 2007 Mikhail Gorbachev (ex-president of the USSR) and Alexander Lebedev (deputy of Russian State Duma) published in Novaya Gazeta an open letter to Bill Gates (chairman of Microsoft) requesting withdrawal of the action against Alexander Ponosov.

In February 2008, Ponosov resigned as school headmaster and began researching the use of open-source software in the Russian education system.

He joined efforts with former parliamentarian Viktor Alksnis to start the Center of Free Technology, a non-profit initiative to work on such tasks.

As a result of the pilot programs, in October 2008, Russian officials mandated that all schools use open source software.