Amazon suspends shipments, Prime Video streaming in Russia amid Ukraine war

Amazon has suspended shipment of retail products to customers based in Russia and Belarus, and will no longer provide customers with access to its streaming service Prime Video in Russia.

The company said that it will no longer be accepting new Russia and Belarus-based AWS customers and Amazon third-party sellers.

"We are also suspending access to Prime Video for customers based in Russia, and we will no longer be taking orders for New World, which is the only video game we sell directly in Russia," the commerce giant said in a statement.

Amazon stopped any new orders of the open-world MMO New World, the only game title it sells in Russia.

Several other gaming giants like EA Games, CD Projekt Red, Take-Two, Ubisoft, Activision Blizzard, and Epic Games, have suspended sales in the country.

Unlike some other US technology providers, Amazon and AWS have no data centres, infrastructure or offices in Russia.

"We have a long-standing policy of not doing business with the Russian government," said Amazon.

Amazon's cloud-computing unit AWS has also announced that it is no longer accepting new customers based in Russia or Belarus, following the invasion of Ukraine.

The company said it is continuing to partner with several NGOs and organisations to support humanitarian needs in the region.

"Amazon donated $5 million to support those impacted. We continue to match our employees' donations, and we're happy to report that over 10,000 employees have donated to the effort," it informed.

Tens of thousands of customers around the world have also made donations via Amazon home pages.

In addition to Amazon, several tech players like Apple, Microsoft, Samsung, Netflix, and PayPal have stopped doing business with Russia. Visa and Mastercard have also shut down operations in the country.

--IANS

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