VK Group, developers of VKontakte and related services, issued its own statement complaining that “Apple removed VK apps from the App Store without any warning or explanation… VK has never been subject to sanctions nor included in the sanctions list, a fact confirmed by numerous legal opinions of international and US counsel. Apple has long been in possession of these official legal opinions and all relevant information. Nevertheless, Apple unilaterally removed VK apps without prior notice… We consider these actions with respect to users inappropriate and unacceptable.” (Translation from Russian via Google Translate.)
VK Group also stressed that its Android apps “will remain fully functional—including updates, notifications, and other features—and are available through RuStore, Google Play, Huawei AppGallery, Samsung Store, Xiaomi Store, and official product websites.”
This also appears to be a new line from the Kremlin. A Russian Telegram channel reporting on Peskov’s comments yesterday quoted him as saying that Apple probably “cannot be trusted as a commercial service provider” and that the outages are “part of a pattern of Apple decisions that are, to put it mildly, bizarre.” (Translation from Russian via Google Translate.)
Yet, regardless of the posture, Peskov knows the score; Russia can’t do anything about this situation. So instead, he ended his talk with an appeal to users. “There’s always an immediate solution,” he said, “switch to Android, switch to our system, switch to our counterpart service, and continue using the services you love.”
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