Russian IT corporation ITG recently said it plans to withdraw from NATO countries after the director of its Dutch subsidiary was detained and equipment at an Amsterdam data center was disconnected. ITG founder Dmitry Gachko accused the West of violating the “basic rights” of Russian businesses and said any director with Russian roots could now “automatically come under attack.” Even before the latest incident, ITGLOBAL.COM’s Dutch subsidiary was involved in a court dispute over allegations of stolen software code. Gachko was also sanctioned by the European Union in July over his role as the owner of a company that supplies technology for Russia’s SORM surveillance system.
ITG announced on Sept. 18 that it would review its international strategy. According to the company, Dutch authorities forcibly cut power to its infrastructure on Sept. 15, the same day the ITGLOBAL.COM NL director was detained. ITG said that for more than 72 hours neither company representatives nor the lawyers it hired were able to contact the detained executive. The corporation turned to the Russian Embassy for assistance.
Industry publication ComNews identified the detained executive as German Leontyev, CEO of Amsterdam-registered ITGLOBAL.COM NL B.V. According to the outlet, he was still in custody as of the evening of Sept. 20. The company’s infrastructure was located at Equinix’s AM2 data center in Amsterdam.
After the incidents, ITG announced that it would remove its infrastructure from the Netherlands and carry out a planned withdrawal from the United States and Canada. The physical equipment, however, is not being moved out of those countries. ITG’s press service told ComNews that the company is ending agreements with partners and offering clients the option of moving their data to other countries and data centers. In the Netherlands, data is being restored from backups at new sites without waiting for access to the disconnected equipment to be restored. Equipment in the United States and Canada remains operational, while data migration is being coordinated with clients. ITG expects the process to be completed within the next several months.
“Nothing is physically moving. We are simply migrating workloads,” the company explained, adding that it plans to redirect key investments and development teams to the Middle East, Asia, and Latin America.
Gachko said the developments showed that legal protections for businesses linked to Russia had effectively disappeared. “We believed and hoped that everything in Europe was fair and governed by the law,” he said. Instead, he claimed, “the rule of force” now applies there, describing the actions of Dutch authorities as “a regime of lawlessness.”
In a separate statement, Gachko linked the events to the origin and citizenship of business owners:
“For many years, global business, including Russia’s IT sector, was brought up in a paradigm in which the West was seen as a safe territory with ideal legal standards. But the bitter reality brings us back to history, which shows that during periods of geopolitical confrontation in Europe, the basic rights and property of entire groups of people and businesses have always been canceled simply because of their origin or citizenship.”
After the incident, he said, the company made an “uncompromising decision to completely stop providing services in NATO countries.”
The code-theft case
ITGLOBAL.COM’s Dutch subsidiary had previously been involved in legal proceedings with U.S.-based ServiceNow over the alleged theft of software code by Russian software developer SimpleOne — which, like ITGLOBAL.COM, is also part of the ITG corporation (ITGLOBAL.COM serves as an integrator for SimpleOne products).
According to SimpleOne, the claims cited similarities between user interface and API method names of both the SimpleOne ServiceNow platforms. SimpleOne denies the allegations that it copied SimpleOne and says its product was developed independently using a different technology stack.
The proceedings had already led to action against ITGLOBAL.COM NL. According to SimpleOne, the Amsterdam District Court authorized the temporary seizure of company data in order to preserve potential evidence. Data was copied from ITGLOBAL.COM NL’s corporate devices and systems, including emails and business correspondence. Through an appointed enforcement officer, the court later requested portions of SimpleOne’s source code from ITGLOBAL.COM NL. The developer said it learned of the request in December 2025 and provided the requested materials. ITGLOBAL.COM NL subsequently removed SimpleOne from its portfolio pending a final court ruling.
It is not known whether Leontyev’s Sept. 15 detention is connected to the ServiceNow claims. There has been no public confirmation of such a link. The Insider sent inquiries to Dutch prosecutors and ServiceNow.
ITG’s owner was involved in developing Russia’s SORM surveillance system
Gachko’s comments on “basic rights” came two months after the European Union sanctioned him over his involvement in human rights abuses in Russia. In an EU Council decision dated July 13, 2026, Gachko is identified as the CEO and ultimate owner of VAS Experts — a company that manufactures, develops, and sells hardware and software for Russia’s System for Operative Investigative Activities, known by its Russian acronym SORM.
SORM is used to monitor internet and mobile communications in Russia, including phone calls, email, internet traffic, messages, and social media. Russian telecommunications operators are required to install the relevant equipment, and traffic can be routed to servers accessible to the Federal Security Service (FSB), the country’s domestic intelligence agency.
The EU Council described VAS Experts as a key SORM supplier, saying the company provides equipment that meets FSB requirements for intercepting communications. The EU said SORM has been used against journalists, opposition figures, protest organizers, critics of the Russian government, and activists opposing the invasion of Ukraine. It concluded that Gachko materially supported serious human rights abuses and the repression of the country’s civil society and democratic opposition.
VAS Experts acknowledged that its inclusion on the EU sanctions list was based on its production of SORM-class solutions but said those products were technologies for “lawful interception and data retention” that allow telecommunications operators to comply with Russia’s legal requirements.
At the same time, Gachko has continued expanding his business in annexed Crimea. He is the founder of IT PARK RUS, a technology park that is part of the ITG ecosystem. In 2024, it was in Sevastopol that Gachko announced the consolidation under the ITG brand of the Russian operations of ITGLOBAL.COM, SimpleOne, vStack, and IT PARK RUS. He now plans to build a third phase of the technology park at a cost of around 4 billion rubles ($47.8 million) and to increase the number of specialists working there to 5,000.
