MOSCOW, Oct. 2 (Xinhua) -- The State Duma of Russia, the lower house of parliament, has started to replace the foreign operating system (OS) Windows and the office suite Microsoft Office with domestic alternatives, local media reported Monday.

The State Duma purchased 1,800 licenses of Astra Linux OS and MyOffice suite for the deputies and administrative staff of the parliament, Russian newspaper Saint-Petersburg Vedomosti reported. The total cost of the purchase was around 52.5 million rubles (536,000 U.S. dollars).

Currently, four departments of the State Duma have already switched to the new software, and the rest of the apparatus will follow suit, the report said.

Astra Linux OS is a Russian-made operating system, and MyOffice is the largest Russian developer of office software solutions.

The switch to domestic software comes after Microsoft Corporation announced on March 4, 2022 that it was leaving the Russian market, suspending sales of products and services in Russia due to events in Ukraine.