14 DAY TRIAL // The whole Wikileaks saga is one of the hottest topics nowadays, especially since the leaked documents provide information regarding a whole range of subject, ranging from UFOs to the American companies' exploits on foreign soils, including here on of the best-known US corporations, namely Intel. So, as TechEye informs us, it would seem that a leaked document from the American Embassy in Moscow details Intel's actions in Russia, which included actually “bullying” the government into accepting certain waivers with respect to the country's import laws related to encryption platforms.
The respective confidential information points out to the fact that Intel was ultimately allowed to import 1,000 encrypted platforms for software development, although Russian laws directly and clearly forbid it.
However, in order to obtain this breakthrough, Intel apparently threatened Russian authorities (going as high as the Russian president) that they'll take some drastic measures if their demands are not met, including laying off around 200 of the company's 1,000 Russian employees.
Furthermore, it also hinted that, should Russia proved not to be cooperative on this topic, they'd relocate their research and development efforts in other parts of the world, such as China or India, which is certainly something Russia didn't want to happen.
As a result of the company's efforts, the Russian government granted Intel the waiver for the imports, which the company considered a major victory, one that would allow other companies to make use of this precedent.
Naturally, what Intel did is not really that big a deal (and certainly not illegal), it's just a desperate measure the company's managers had to resort when everything else probably failed.
All we can say is that this is probably just the tip of the iceberg, and we're expecting quite a lot more information pertaining to the activities of US corporations in various parts of the world to be leaked by the aforementioned source sooner or later.