Compiled by AI-Assistant
The removal of VK applications from the App Store is not an isolated case. Earlier, already in September 2022, VKontakte and other applications of the VK ecosystem, including Mail.ru and VK Music, were removed from the AppStore, but they were restored in October of the same year. At the same time, the general director of the VK holding, Vladimir Kiriyenko, has been under US sanctions since February 2022.
Similar restrictions affected applications of other Russian companies. Applications of Russian banks such as VTB, Tinkoff, Sber and Alfa Bank were removed from the App Store after the introduction of sanctions. Also, the Avito ad service, RuTube, applications from Kaspersky Lab, United Russia, as well as a number of VPN services and the unofficial Telegram client Telega disappeared from the application store. Removal of such applications is often due to sanctions policies, requirements of regulatory bodies such as Roskomnadzor, or the need to comply with legislation.
Apple explained the removal of applications from the Russian App Store, in particular VPN services, by the need to comply with the requirements of national legislation, since violation of the laws could lead to the termination of the store’s operation in Russia. Russian authorities are taking various measures to force Apple to comply with Russian law, including initiatives to force the return of domestic services to the App Store and the installation of the Russian app store RuStore.
