Russian government accused of buying 'grey' notebooks

According to the Russian IT Mag CNews, opposition groups are asking questions about the origin of some very nice mobile computers used by the Russian government.

United Russia faction deputy Alexander Lebedev claims the notebooks, which have been officially delivered since 2005, are greyware and he does not believe that the Government can show the necessary paperwork for them. Apparently laptops were being used by the Russian government pen pushers before that date but no paperwork exists for them at all and the new ones may be in the same state.

Lebedev is a bit concerned that the Vaios seem to have been bought without any tenders being called. The risk is that they could have fallen off the back of a black Mercedes four-by-four for a cheap price and had mafia-approved spyware on board.

Even if that was not the case, the fact that the government is using dodgy laptops could result in them all being prosecuted by Sony. Lebedev said that he was inspired by the recent case of a principal being prosecuted for pirated Windows copies being installed on his schools computers. He wondered if any dodgy gear was hanging around the Government hall of the Russian Federation. µ

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