The representatives of Apple Inc. explained to a Russian committee that it could not remove the application by Russian opposition politician Alexey Navalny from the App Store, as requested by Moscow, due to some legal subtleties, a senior Russian lawmaker, Andrey Klimov, said on Thursday
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 16th September, 2021) The representatives of Apple Inc. explained to a Russian committee that it could not remove the application by Russian opposition politician Alexey Navalny from the App Store, as requested by Moscow, due to some legal subtleties, a senior Russian lawmaker, Andrey Klimov, said on Thursday.
On September 2, Russia's state communications regulator, Roskomnadzor, demanded that the US corporations Apple Inc. and Google LLC remove the "Navalny" app from their online store. The app, which is associated with the activist's Anti-Corruption Foundation (banned in Russia as an extremist organization and a foreign agent), has a section called "Smart Voting," created to consolidate votes at the upcoming general elections to hurt the ruling United Russia party.
"Representatives of Apple referred to certain legal subtleties that do not allow the parent company to influence the App Store portal to remove content, the so-called Navalny application," Klimov said, commenting on a meeting of the parliamentary State Sovereignty Protection Committee, which he chairs.
The lawmaker also said that there was direct foreign interference in the elections, while "an aggravating circumstance is the fact that the so-called Smart Voting campaign and an application called Navalny in the App Store and Google were developed and promoted by the Anti-Corruption Foundation and people affiliated with it."
Klimov added that he considers the excuses by the Apple representatives to be insignificant, since "the parent company is in any case responsible for the actions of those structures that it subsidizes, establishes and ultimately creates."
Voting in the Russian lower house, the State Duma, will take place from September 17-19. The State Duma is elected for a five-year term under a mixed electoral system 225 lawmakers are elected on party lists, and another 225 on single-mandate Constituencies in one round. Fourteen parties, including United Russia, the Communist Party, the Liberal Democratic Party, A Just Russia and others have registered Federal lists of candidates.
