The Kremlin is threatening to cut ties with Apple over the blocking of VKontakte

Russian authorities have promised to take action against the American corporation Apple in response to the removal of VK (VKontakte) services from the App Store. 

This was stated by Russian Presidential Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov. According to him, the Russian side will first attempt to contact the company to clarify the reasons, and if no explanation is provided, a decision will be made regarding the advisability of further cooperation with this manufacturer. 

The Kremlin spokesman noted that in early June, the state-run messaging app Max—developed by the same VK group—also disappeared from the App Store without warning. Calling the tech giant’s actions “strange” and harmful to the interests of millions of users, Peskov advised Russian citizens to abandon Apple devices in favor of other platforms. For active users of Russian digital products, he suggested that switching to devices running the Android operating system or to local Russian systems would be an immediate solution to the problem.

Source: The Moscow Times.

Apple has removed a number of apps from the Russian holding company VK from the App Store, including “VKontakte,” Mail.ru, VK Video, VK Music, VK Messenger, “Zen,” and “Odnoklassniki.”

The Russian messaging app Max has disappeared from the international section of the Huawei AppGallery.