The Federation Council announced Apple’s readiness to assist state authorities. At the same time, the company itself announced that it would not remove the Navalny application.

Apple representatives expressed their readiness for direct dialogue and assistance to Russian government bodies at all levels. This was stated by the Federation Council Commission for the Protection of State Sovereignty following its meeting with the participation of representatives of Apple and Google, transfers Interfax.

As noted in the document of the Federation Council, the data available in the commission and the discussion at the meeting “showed the validity of claims against the American digital companies Google and Apple in terms of illegal interference in the Russian federal parliamentary elections in 2021.”

The commission recalled the inadmissibility of interference, noting that otherwise the companies would force the Russian side to take adequate retaliatory actions, including bringing the perpetrators to personal responsibility, including criminal responsibility.

Earlier on September 16, “Interfax” reportedthat Apple representatives at a meeting of the Federation Council commission stated that the company could not influence the AppStore to remove the Navalny application, citing legal features. This was announced by the head of the commission Andrei Klimov.

“During our meeting, insofar as Apple representatives had the right to speak, they referred to certain legal subtleties that do not allow the parent company Apple to influence the AppStore portal to remove this content, which is called … the Navalny application,” Klimov said on the results of the meeting of the commission.

According to the Federation Council, the actions of these companies violate Russian election legislation. Klimov expressed the hope that both Apple and Google will carry out the appropriate work and remove the “malicious content” from their resources before the start of the elections to the State Duma.

On September 9, Roskomnadzor demanded that Apple, Google, Cloudflare and Cisco stop providing ways to bypass the blocking of the Smart Voting website in Russia, as well as the mobile application of Navalny’s associates in connection with violation of electoral laws. They added that Apple and Google app stores are ignoring the requirement to close access to these applications. If the requirements are not met, “these actions will be considered as foreign interference” in the elections to the State Duma, RKN warned.