Thought Leadership
A source code analysis suggests that Euro-Office, despite its formal split from OnlyOffice earlier this year, remains heavily dependent on software originally developed by programmers working in Russia.
Marketed as a European alternative to Microsoft Office and Google Docs, Euro-Office was launched as a fork of the open-source office suite OnlyOffice with the goal of reducing reliance on U.S. technology providers. In March 2026, the European development team announced a formal separation from the original project, citing both geopolitical and technical reasons for pursuing an independent development path.
However, an investigation by Cybernews ahead of the product’s planned June 9, 2026 launch found that Euro-Office continues to incorporate changes originating from developers working in Russian time zones. According to the analysis, 98.6% of the document engine and 99.2% of the live services component were originally written by developers located in Russian time zones, while contributions from European developers account for only about 0.5%.
Security Concerns Over Unknown Cloud Resources
Although Euro-Office officially forked from OnlyOffice version 9.3.1 on March 5, 2026, developers within the European consortium — including employees of German software vendor Nextcloud — subsequently integrated approximately 370 code changes from the OnlyOffice project into the server-side components. By comparison, only around 20 original modifications have been made since the split.
Cybernews reviewed roughly 15,600 changes in the OnlyOffice codebase and found that about 90% were committed from the Moscow time zone. When additional Russian time zones such as Omsk, Yekaterinburg, and Samara were included, the figure rose to 99.5%.
The analysts also raised specific concerns regarding the software’s network security architecture.
“One of the biggest issues is that the code pulls an Android bundle from an unknown cloud resource, which raises security concerns about what it contains, who owns it, and whether it can be changed at any time.”
Cybernews
Software Vendors Respond to the Allegations
The European consortium behind Euro-Office — which includes Nextcloud, Ionos, Eurostack, Proton, XWiki, and OpenProject — has argued that the fork was necessary due to a lack of transparency within the OnlyOffice project.
On the project’s GitHub page, the developers stated:
“Open source is a global effort, but the current political situation makes collaboration difficult and trust hard to establish. This is especially true when development is not transparent and open. Many users and customers are asking for software that is not potentially influenced or controlled by the Russian government.”
OnlyOffice, meanwhile, stresses that its commercial operations are handled through Ascensio System, a company registered in Latvia, and that it complies with all applicable EU laws and international regulations. The company’s beneficial owners are based in Singapore.
Responding to the allegations, Galina Goduhina, Chief Commercial Officer of OnlyOffice, said:
“Our team is international, as is common for modern technology companies. We work with developers and contributors from multiple countries and focus on expertise, not geography.”
She also criticized attempts to evaluate software based on the nationality of its developers rather than on code quality, transparency, and security standards.
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