Mar 14, 2022 11:13:00

It was discovered that Apple and Google had succumbed to Russian government pressure to remove the app, and government agents threatened to 'take prison' to corporate executives.

Russia's invasion of Ukraine, which began on February 24, 2022, has deepened the conflict between Western and Eastern countries, and the clash between the two camps has also led to the activities of private companies such as Apple's

suspension of product sales in Russia. It's flying. However, Russia was preparing to intimidate Apple and Google to shut down criticisms of the administration even before the war began, according to an interview with The Washington Post.

Putin's pre-invasion moves against Google and Apple laid tech groundwork for crackdown --The Washington Post
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/03/12/russia-putin-google-apple-navalny/

Russian pressure against Google and Apple preceded Putin's invasion of Ukraine
https://www.androidpolice.com/russian-pressure-against-google-and-apple-preceded-putins-invasion-of-ukraine/

In September 2021, President Vladimir Putin's political opponent Alexei Navalny released the voting app ' Smart Voting ' to call on the public to oppose United Russia, the ruling party of the Putin administration. The Washington Post reported that shortly afterwards, the Federal Security Service (FSB) visited the women's home of a Google executive in Moscow and urged them to remove Smart Voting.

Google has taken steps to ensure the safety of women, such as arranging hotels under a pseudonym, but soon FSB investigators found the woman and the deadline for removing the app was approaching. He told him that he would arrest the woman if the time was up. As a result, Google and Apple have removed Smart Voting from their respective app distribution platforms.

The Russian government's tightening on foreign companies is accelerating with the invasion of Ukraine, Russia has already blocked access to Twitter and Facebook, and imposes heavy fines on companies that do not cooperate with censorship. The Fake News Act is also in force. It is also reported that the Russian government has ordered 13 major IT companies in the world to keep their employees in Russia, and officials are calling this instruction the 'law of hostages'.
Russian authorities restrict access to Twitter and Facebook-GIGAZINE

Google has since revived the Smart Voting app, allowing Navalny to deliver messages to Russian Android users. However, Apple is still considering reviving the app. In this regard, Android Police, which handles Android-related news, said, 'Russian iPhone users are currently looking only at what President Putin wants to show.'