As the list of companies exiting the Russian market continues to grow, the Russian government is considering exceptional policies that will allow Russian businesses to keep operating. One of those policies includes legalizing piracy for any company that's pulled out of Russia, and this could include games.
Bungie, Epic, 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Take-Two, Ubisoft, 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Digital Extremes, Nintendo, 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:CD Projekt, and Sony have all announced their intent to stop selling their products in Russia and Belarus. That means nobody in Russia can purchase anything in Destiny 2 or Warframe, they can't buy games from GOG or the Switch eShop, and the already sparse PlayStation 5 shipments will cease entirely.
With and sanctions hitting the Russian economy and , the Russian government has created a plan to fight back. As per a report from (via ), it's called the "Priority Action Plan for Ensuring the Development of the Russian Economy in the Conditions of External Sanctions Pressure." The Russian Ministry of Economic Development is proposing numerous policies to prop up the Russian economy, with one of them suggesting people just pirate software that they can't buy legally in Russia.
Under Information Technology item 6.7.3, the government proposes the "cancellation of liability for the use of software (SW) unlicensed in the Russian Federation, owned by a copyright holder from countries that have supported the sanctions." This would make it legal for any Russian citizen to pirate software from a company that's stopped selling its products in Russia due to sanctions.
As PC Gamer notes, this doesn't quite legalize all piracy--just for the software that used to be sold in Russia but isn't anymore. This is likely mostly about business software like Microsoft Windows, but from the way it's worded, it could just as easily be applied to video games too.
PC Gamer also notes that Russia even when it was illegal, so this law isn't likely to change game piracy all that much. Still, it's an extraordinary step for a government to legalize piracy in any form. It seems like Russia is going even further back in time from the Soviet era all the way to the 1600s.