The Russian government has banned the purchase of foreign software for significant critical infrastructure projects.

President Vladimir Putin signed the decree, effective March 31.

Customers in Russia cannot purchase such software "to use it on their own significant sites of the critical information infrastructure of the Russian Federation," as well as "services necessary for the use of such software on these sites," without approval from the federal executive body authorized by the government of the Russian Federation, the document said.

Critical infrastructure noted by Russian state-owned news agency TASS includes information systems and telecommunication networks critical for the operation healthcare, manufacturing industry, communications, transport, energy, financial sector, and municipal facilities.

The move comes as Europe, the US, Taiwan, and others enforce heavy sanctions on Russia for its unprovoked invasion of Ukraine. Numerous companies have gone further than sanctions legally require, fully pulling out of Russia - including Netflix, Sabre, Ericsson, PayPal, Mastercard, and Visa. Cisco, Google, Microsoft, and Oracle are among those that have ceased new sales.