HP has completely withdrawn from the Russian market in order to conform with sanctions mandated by the US in response to the ongoing conflict in Ukraine.
The company’s local website, which has served as a home for driver downloads and technical support in Russian, has now been directed to Kazakhstan. A former Soviet state, Russian is the country’s official language and one of its two most spoken languages.
Despite the removal of online support, Russian shoppers can still access drivers for notebooks, HP printers, and other hardware on the redirected website.
HP pulls out of the Russian market
Russia’s CNews was among the first to share information on the move, claiming HP’s termination of business within the country came as a shock, with no prior notifications being shared. CNews contrasts this to Microsoft, which gave Russian customers one week’s notice before shutting down its business.
HP started retreating in March 2022, announcing the cessation of hardware sales. However, it only took another two months for the country to obtain parallel imports, effectively rendering the change ineffective.
CNews revealed that distributors in the country, such as Softline, Merlion, and M.Video-Eldorado, have all declined to comment on the state of HP imports and sales, potentially alluding to higher-than-expected HP sales.
Russia doesn’t seem too concerned about HP’s decision to exit the market, though. In a subheading loosely translated as “Everything is bad in the world too,” CNews reveals that while HP may be boycotting Russia, the rest of the world is on the cusp of boycotting HP over its printer blocking.
An HP spokesperson directed us to the company’s February 2022 blog post, stating: “In February 2022, we suspended all shipments to Russia. Given the current environment and long-term outlook, we made the decision to stop all Russia activity in 2022.”