By CLIFFORD J. LEVY

IRKUTSK, Russia - One January afternoon, a squad of plainclothes police officers arrived at the headquarters of an environmental group that was organizing protests against Prime Minister Vladimir V.

Putin’s decision to reopen a paper factory at nearby Lake Baikal. The factory had polluted the lake, a natural wonder that may hold 20 percent of the world’s fresh water. The group, Baikal Environmental Wave, fell victim that day to one of the authorities’ newest tactics for quelling dissent: confiscating computers under the pretext of searching for pirated Microsoft software.

Across Russia in recent years, the security services have carried out dozens of similar raids against outspoken advocacy groups or opposition newspapers. Security officials say the inquiries reflect their concern about software piracy, which is rampant in Russia.

Yet they rarely if ever carry out raids against advocacy groups or news organizations that back the government. And as the ploy grew common, the authorities received key assistance from an unexpected partner: Microsoft itself. In politically tinged inquiries across Russia, lawyers retained by Microsoft staunchly backed the police.

But on September 13, after after a report in The New York Times , Microsoft announced sweeping changes to ensure that the authorities do not use crackdowns on software piracy as an excuse to suppress advocacy or opposition groups. The company effectively prohibited its lawyers from taking part in such cases.

The new Microsoft policy was announced in an apologetic statement by the company’s senior vice president and general counsel, Brad Smith. He said that Microsoft would make sure that it was no longer offering legal support to politically motivated piracy inquiries by providing a blanket software license to advocacy groups and media outlets.

They would be automatically covered by it, without having to apply. Advocates and journalists who have been targets of such raids said they were pleased that Microsoft was announcing reforms, though some added that they remained suspicious of its intentions. In the past, lawyers retained by Microsoft in Russia had rebuffed pleas by accused journalists and advocacy groups to refrain from working with the authorities.

Baikal Wave, in fact, asked Microsoft for help in fending off the police. “Microsoft did not want to help us, ” said Marina Rikhvanova, a Baikal Environmental Wave chairwoman and one of Russia’s best-known environmentalists. “They said these issues had to be handled by the security services.”

A review of cases indicates that the security services often seize computers whether or not they contain illegal software. The police immediately file reports saying they have discovered such programs, before even examining the computers in detail. In numerous instances, when the cases went before judges, the police claims were successfully discredited.

Given the suspicions that these investigations were politically motivated, the police and prosecutors turned to Microsoft to lend weight to their cases. In southwestern Russia, the Interior Ministry declared in an official document that its investigation of a human rights advocate for software piracy was begun “based on an application” from a lawyer for Microsoft.

In another city, Samara, the police seized computers from two opposition newspapers, with the support of a different Microsoft lawyer. “Without the participation of Microsoft, these criminal cases against human rights defenders and journalists would simply not be able to occur,” said the editor of the newspapers, Sergey Kurt- Adzhiyev. Baikal Wave’s leaders said they had known that the authorities used such raids to pressure advocacy groups, so they had made certain that all their software was legal. But they quickly realized how difficult it would be to defend themselves.

A supervising officer issued a report on the spot saying that illegal software had been uncovered. Before the raid, the environmentalists said their computers were affixed with Microsoft’s “Certificate of Authenticity” stickers that attested to the software’s legality. But as the computers were being hauled away, they noticed something odd: the stickers were gone. The group’s Web site was disabled, its finances left in disarray, its plans disclosed to the authorities.

The police also obtained personnel information from the computers. In the following weeks, officers tracked down some of the group’s supporters and interrogated them. “The police had one goal, which was to prevent us from working,” said Galina Kulebyakina, a chairwoman of Baikal Wave. “They removed our computers because we actively took a position against the paper factory and forcefully voiced it.”

In a statement, the Irkutsk police said a forensic examination of the computers in February showed that several contained illegal software that would have cost more than $3,300. Baikal Wave said the examination was fraudulent. Baikal Wave sent copies of its software receipts and other documentation to Microsoft’s Moscow office to show that it had purchased its software legally.

The group said it believed that the authorities would be under pressure to drop the case if Microsoft would confirm the documents’ authenticity. Microsoft declined to do so. In a letter to Baikal Wave, the company said it would forward the materials only to the authorities in Irkutsk, which already had copies of them. In Irkutsk, Baikal Environmental Wave located some old computers and was still able to hold protests against the paper factory.

Baikal Wave protested against a paper factory it said killed fish in Lake Baikal.
Months earlier it was raided for software piracy.