r/europe • u/Dry_Row_7050 • 2d ago

News Kremlin-Mandated Messaging App Constantly Spies On Users

https://www.forbes.com/sites/thomasbrewster/2025/08/26/kremlin-whatsapp-rival-is-designed-to-spy-on-users/
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u/TheIncredibleHeinz 2d ago

Russia's domestic app store, RuStore, will also be pre-installed on all Apple devices from the same date.

What's the status of Apple's operations in Russia anyway? Looks like they are they back to business as usual? I remember them fighting tooth and nails against the alternative App Store requirement mandated by the EU's Digital Markets Act, which according to the Americans is the devil, arguing about security, data protection and what not. But allowing the Russian's to implements their Spy and Malware Store is apparently totally fine?

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u/Dalnore Russian in Israel 2d ago

They officially don't operate in the country, but they do nothing to prevent imports of Apple devices from third countries and they comply with all censorship demands of Russia (like deleting VPN apps from the Russian AppStore, for example).

However, there's no indication yet they will comply with pre-installing RuStore.