Robert Michael / dpa / Scanpix / LETA
What happened?
On November 11, Telegram channels and media outlets began widely circulating reports (1, 2, 3) that Anthropic would cut off access to its Claude chatbot for employees of Russian companies starting November 12, even if they work in other countries.
How can we tell this isn’t news?
- Go to the page where the company announced that its updated usage policy would take effect November 12.
- At the bottom, find the “Clarifying our Supported Regions Policy” section, where the company says it updated its “Supported Regions” page, which lists the countries where Claude is available.
- On the “Supported Regions” page, find the previous version of the list, dated May 12, 2026, in the right-hand column. The May and November lists are identical. The page hasn’t changed at all.
What do the rules say?
Anthropic’s rules prohibit using Claude in countries that aren’t on the list, such as Russia and China.
Under the rules, the following cannot use the company’s services:
- People physically located in an unsupported region
- Companies registered in an unsupported region and their employees, even if those employees are in a supported region
- Companies in which people or organizations from unsupported regions directly or indirectly hold a controlling stake
Anthropic made the following changes to its usage policy:
- Consolidated existing rules barring state media, government propaganda offices, and commercial firms from using Claude to run networks of fake accounts and fabricated news sites into a new section
- Clarified the section prohibiting the use of Claude to deceive voters or disrupt elections
- Specified that Claude cannot be used to build guidance and control software for weapons
- Made its wording on surveillance and law enforcement more precise
- Rewrote the section on requirements for using the chatbot in high-risk areas such as health, finance, and law
- Prohibited sustained and needless abusive or cruel behavior toward its AI models
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