Anton Gorelkin said that Russian authorities are negotiating with Apple about pre-installing the national RuStore app store on the American company’s devices. This was reported by the first deputy chairman of the State Duma Information Policy Committee on his Telegram channel.
Author:
https://rb.ru/author/bmuzichenko/
Subscribe to RB.RU on Telegram
“Here we are not inventing the wheel, we are not inventing anything new, since a similar regulation already exists in the European Union. An alternative app store has already started operating in the EU since April of this year, and Apple has allowed it. That is why I am sure that everything will go well for us, because today negotiations are taking place with the company,” said the deputy.
According to him, “Apple itself is interested in the appearance of RuStore on its devices.” Gorelkin added that the State Duma, in its first reading, supported a bill that would “prohibit foreign companies from discriminating against Russian app developers and their users.” MPs must present amendments to the second reading by December 12.
In particular, if the document is adopted, from September 1, 2025, manufacturers will not be able to impose restrictions on the installation and use of RuStore on mobile devices and other technically complex products, as well as on making payments. The list of said products will be established by the Cabinet of Ministers.
Gorelkin stressed that “there can be no question of any ban on the sale of iPhones in Russia,” but did not rule out sanctions “for discrimination against application developers and their users.”
RuStore is an online application store for Android, Harmony OS and Aurora OS, developed by VK. The store also includes services from Russian banks (T-Bank, Sberbank and others), which were removed from the App Store and Google Play after the credit institutions came under Western sanctions.
Author:
Bogdan Muzychenko
Source: RB
I am a professional journalist and content creator with extensive experience writing for news websites. I currently work as an author at Gadget Onus, where I specialize in covering hot news topics. My written pieces have been published on some of the biggest media outlets around the world, including The Guardian and BBC News.
