Apple is done with Russia for the time being - at least from the outside. 9 to 5 Mac says the Cupertino-company has pulled the Russian information apps RT News and Sputnik News from the App Store and stopped all product sales in the country. John Paczkowski, tech and business editor at BuzzFeed News, posted a statement from Apple on the issue to Twitter. That had the company saying:
We are deeply concerned about the Russian invasion of Ukraine and stand with all of the people who are suffering as a result of the violence. We are supporting humanitarian efforts, providing aid for the unfolding refugee crisis, and doing all we can to support our teams in the region.
We have taken a number of actions in response to the invasion. We have paused all product sales in Russia. Last week, we stopped all exports into our sales channel in the country. Apple Pay and other services have been limited. RT News and Sputnik News are no longer available for download from the App Store outside Russia. And we have disabled both traffic and live incidents in Apple Maps in Ukraine as a safety and precautionary measure for Ukrainian citizens.
We will continue to evaluate the situation and are in communication with relevant governments on the actions we are taking. We join all those around the world who are calling for peace.
The report points out that Apple’s moves do a lot of what Ukraine deputy prime-minister Mykhailo Fedorov had asked the company to do. Late last week, Fedorov called on Apple “to stop supplying Apple services and products to the Russian Federation, including blocking access to App Store!” Fedorov thought that might upset youth and the “active population of Russia” enough to lean on Putin’s government to end the invasion. Some of that Fedorov got. 9 to 5 Mac says while the company has stopped product sales in Russia and stopped its disinformation pipelines through the App Store out of the country, “the App Store in Russia remains available.”
