An official Kremlin clip shows President Vladimir Putin casting an online vote on a Dell desktop PC. The footage clearly displays the "Activate Windows" watermark, indicating the operating system is running unlicensed.
The machine is American-made, which sits awkwardly with Russia's push for domestic technology. Tom's Hardware notes the contradiction: a foreign Dell PC used despite Russian tech mandates, and the irony is hard to miss in an official government video.
The incident is a small but visible example of the gap between policy and practice in Russian state hardware. It also underscores how widely unactivated Windows copies remain in use, even in high-profile government settings.