I see a lot of US companies blocking 5 country codes and .ru is one of them. It wouldn't be that surprising if Microsoft is doing the same.
My opinion? It sucks that ordinary people over there are suffering for no fault of their own, but aside from direct conflict, making life hard for the populace would seem the only way to pressure the government.
That said, VPNs generally make this unenforceable and all it's going to do is add a step to what people have to do over there.