Microsoft Corp.(NASDAQ:MSFT) announced plans to invest about 10 billion rubles ($300 million) in Russia over the next three years, the company’s CEO, Steve Ballmer, said at a press conference on Monday.

Microsoft will invest in both short-term anti-crisis and long-term programs, Ballmer remarked, according to The Moscow Times.

“There’s no better time to get prepared for future. We continue to invest despite reducing our activities in some fields,” Ballmer commented.

The software giant CEO said it also support startups across Russia and will also help fuel innovation in sectors that are not directly software related.

More than 1,000 companies, selected by Microsoft together with the Small Business Support Association, will receive Microsoft’s software free, Steve Ballmer said.

Microsoft's Russia president, Nikolai Pryanishnikov, signed an agreement at the same news conference with the Space Research Institute to establish an institution that will study global climate change for three years.

Climate change is not a software problem -- it's an opportunity, Ballmer said following the signing.

Energy science, environmental science, medical science -- those are all fields of innovation. And yet software will be a key part of the way in which people develop non-IT industries.

Steve Ballmer Microsoft Software Climate