Russia on Wednesday demanded an explanation from Apple after the tech giant removed the country's homegrown social network VK from its App Store.
Russia's communications regulator, Roskomnadzor, has been a
thorn in the side of foreign tech firms in recent months, issuing fines over
data storage violations and failures to remove content Russia deems illegal.
Such disputes have escalated ever since Moscow sent its
armed forces into Ukraine in February, prompting Western sanctions and causing
hundreds of companies to turn their back on business with Russia.
VK runs Vkontakte, which with over 75 million monthly users
is Russia's largest social network, often compared to Facebook.
Along with VK's email service Mail.ru, Vkontakte must be
pre-installed on mobile devices sold in Russia.
Roskomnadzor said Apple's actions had deprived millions of
Russians of access to VK apps and demanded that it explain its decision.
Apple said it follows laws in the jurisdictions where the
company operates.
It said the apps in question were being distributed by
developers majority-owned or majority-controlled by one or more parties targeted
by sanctions from the UK government.
Regardless of location, the apps cannot be downloaded from
any App store, said Apple, which terminated the developer accounts associated
with the apps to comply with UK sanctions.
State-controlled VK tightened its grip on Russia's internet
space this month by finalising a deal to buy rival Yandex's news aggregator,
content platform Zen and yandex.ru homepage.
VK CEO Vladimir Kiriyenko is under UK sanctions, along with
his father Sergei Kiriyenko, who serves as President Vladimir Putin's first
deputy chief of staff.
'Discriminatory'
Roskomnadzor called the restrictions
"discriminatory" and said they violated Russian internet users' right
to free information and communication.
Russia has, however, itself limited its citizens' access to
information by forcing all significant independent Russian media to close and
blocking US social media platforms Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
VK on Tuesday said that its apps, including Vkontakte,
continued to work if already installed on smartphones, and that it was
continuing to develop and support apps for Apple's iOS operating system.
Roskomnadzor also asked Apple to explain its removal of
other apps, including those of airline Aeroflot and a number of banks such as
top lenders Sberbank and VTB.