Kremlin employees will no longer be allowed to use iPhones. This is reported by the Russian newspaper Kommersant. In terms of computers, people have been working on switching from Microsoft to Linux for months.
Bans due to privacy concerns are not a one-way street. While Chinese software (TikTok) and hardware (Huawei) in particular are considered a danger and are therefore blocked, Russia is now taking a similar approach: according to a report, employees of the Russian presidential administration are no longer allowed to use Apple’s iPhones due to data protection concerns. The ban will apply from April 1, according to the newspaper “Kommersant”.
“It’s over for the iPhone: either you throw it away or you give it to the children,” the paper quoted a participant in a meeting of the presidential administration as saying. As a replacement, smartphones with a different operating system would be issued.
Government spokesman Dmitry Peskov was initially unable to confirm this information, but pointed out that smartphones should not be used for official events anyway. The US technology group Apple could not initially be reached for comment.
Immediately after the Russian invasion of Ukraine a good year ago, the secret services of the United States and Great Britain announced that they were aware of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s plans. However, it is unclear how they obtained this information. Putin has repeatedly emphasized that he does not own a smartphone. According to Peskov, however, the Russian President occasionally uses the Internet.
Russia’s goal of technological independence
The alternatives on the smartphone market are manageable. A change from iPhone or iOS (Apple’s operating system) to Google is unlikely. For years, Russia’s ruler Putin has been making people sit up and take notice with plans for their own smartphone operating system. But nothing more came of it.
Computers started moving to Linux in September last year. Simply because Microsoft stopped providing Windows licenses. But a change is not so easy. Many of the existing programs have to be rewritten from scratch. The Russian administration’s software register currently includes almost 14,000 products from 4,400 providers.
(APA/bagre)