The American multinational Apple has eliminated almost a hundred VPN applications in Russia, dozens more than those officially reported by the Kremlin’s censorship body. These extensions, virtual private networks, allow Russian citizens to circumvent their Government’s Internet vetoes, especially access to media edited by Russian journalists in exile, to Western newspapers, including EL PAÍS, and to foreign social networks.
The American company, whose mobile phones continue to be sold in Russian stores despite officially leaving the market due to the invasion of Ukraine, has eliminated a total of 98 VPNs, 60 of them in the last three months, as revealed by the Greatfire project. “Unilaterally restricting access to these important tools without transparency or due process makes Apple complicit in government censorship,” Benjamin Ismail, director of this platform that monitors state repression on the Internet throughout the world, warned in a statement. world.
Apple announced in May that in total it had removed 12 apps from the App Store in 2023 at the request of the Kremlin, while the federal service responsible for controlling and capping the Internet in Russia, the omnipresent Roskomnadzor, had so far reported only 25 VPNs removed by the company at your request. However, Greatfire’s investigation reveals that the multinational recently removed dozens more applications in several massive rounds, especially between July and August.
“There were coordinated elimination patterns. “They were concentrated on specific dates, suggesting that there was a coordinated effort by Apple that probably went beyond Roskomnadzor’s requests, rather than a voluntary withdrawal by the VPN developers themselves,” he denounces via another statement Roskomsvoboda, a free Internet platform in Russia who is a collaborator of the Greatfire project. The group cites CyberGhost VPN and ExpressVPN among other major apps secretly removed. Previously it had been the turn, officially, of other well-known networks such as Proton, Red Shield and NordVPN. According to Roskomsvoboda, Only China surpasses Russia in restrictions on media that avoid state blocking of the Internet.
Ismail notes that Apple “has not explained why it has departed from its own standards, which recognize ‘the critical importance of an open society where information flows freely.’” And he adds: “In addition, its rules clearly say that ‘hand in hand with the confidentiality of our users goes a commitment to freedom of expression and information.’
Apple, Microsoft and Google are still in Russia
Software and hardware from large Western technology companies continue to be sold in Russia, despite the fact that Moscow promised that they would be replaced by Russian products and that the companies themselves said that they were leaving the market in solidarity with Ukraine. Everything arrives imported, or through the pirate market, and although subscriptions cannot be renewed within the country due to the blockade of the financial system, it can be done through accounts abroad
Although the technology companies do not sell their services directly, there are indications that they operate in a limbo within the country. Browsers continue to offer advertising adapted to the user according to their geolocation and searches; and Google, for example, did not close access to the AdSense and BiqQuery advertising network in Russia until August of this year. In fact, this newspaper has verified how new Gmail accounts could be created until a few weeks ago in the country: only now does it reject the use of a Russian telephone as a means of validation.
Where the Kremlin censors one VPN another appears, although in Apple’s closed system it is more complicated and the company has one of its largest businesses in the world in Russia along with the United States. According to Globalstats26% of Russians use iPhone and the sanctions have not diminished their love for the Californian company. Although the company no longer sells its products in Russia, in response to the invasion of Ukraine, its phones, tablets and all kinds of accessories continue to arrive in massive quantities with Apple’s knowledge, through resale from third countries, especially Turkey, China and Central Asian nations.
The Russian government legalized smuggling at the beginning of the war and called it parallel imports. In any case, prices are much higher than in the rest of the world due to import problems caused by sanctions. For example, the new iPhone 16 Pro with 256 gigabytes is on pre-sale in one of the main technology chains in the country – MVideo – for 165,999 rubles, which is about 1,660 euros at the exchange rate. There are 400 euros difference with the recommended price, a 33% more premium. However, demand has risen 15% compared to the previous generation, a resale company told Reuters.
The Kremlin uses VPNs and networks that it censors
This double game extends to control of the Internet. The Russian government has banned access to foreign social networks, including X, Facebook and Instagram; and the latter have been declared an extremist organization, so working with them theoretically implies prison sentences. However, Russian official organizations and many personalities close to the Kremlin continue to use these social networks through VPN.
Moscow assures that it is not a crime to use VPN applications while pursuing them. “I’m not aware of any sanctions,” Putin’s spokesman, Dmitri Peskov, responded in April to the umpteenth question from Russian journalists throughout this war about the risk of using VPNs — secretly, everyone uses them. “Although Roskomnadzor is making every effort to block VPN services,” the Kremlin press officer said, “these efforts will, in fact, continue to reduce the ability to bypass the block,” he emphasized.
Peskov himself acknowledged in April 2022 that he had a VPN installed on his mobile. “Yes of course. Well, why not? This is not prohibited,” said the spokesman for the Russian president. Weeks before, his Government had banned access within Russia to Instagram, due to criticism of the army and Putin after massacres such as that of Bucha, although today it remains one of the most popular social networks in Russia – where people prefer to show an idyllic life to war. The point is that, having been declared extremist, legally any interaction with this network could be considered a crime even though the Kremlin has ruled it out.
Russian propaganda uses these platforms massively to project its message abroad and among Russians who still access with VPN. Among them, Russia Today, expelled by Meta after US reports linking the outlet to the Russian secret service. Peskov acknowledged last week that the veto against the Russians does not extend to their propaganda towards the West. “We use all possible resources to disseminate the president’s work,” said Putin’s spokesman when asked why the Kremlin updates its YouTube channel even though the platform has been slowed down—not banned—by Roskomnadzor, to such an extent. extreme that does not work without the use of VPN.
