Russia Threatens Apple With $50M Fine Over Kremlin-Backed Messenger

Russia has threatened US tech giant Apple with a 4 billion rubles ($49.7 million) fine over the company’s alleged noncompliance with Moscow’s demand to pre-install Kremlin-sanctioned messaging services. Russia’s Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) said it launched a formal investigation into the company for failing to fully comply with its earlier warning, according to Russian state media RIA Novosti on Monday.JOIN US ON TELEGRAMFollow our coverage of the war on the @Kyivpost_official. “The company failed to comply with the FAS Russia warning regarding the pre-installation of the national messenger and domestic app store on iOS devices (iPhone, iPad),” the FAS’s statement says. The agency warned Apple in July over the pre-installation of foreign search engines and requested that the operating system come preinstalled with Max and RuStore, the Kremlin’s state-sanctioned messenger service and marketplace, according to RIA Novosti. Apple was told to comply by July 15 or face a potential 4 billion rubles fine. The company reportedly partially fulfilled the demands by making it possible to pre-install the Russian search engine, but only in the updated version of iOS. The company announced its departure from Russia in March 2022, days after Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine began, though some services, including localizations in Russian and access to Apple Music, remain available. In April 2026, Apple also suspended support for Apple subscriptions and digital purchases made using mobile phone accounts from Russian telecom providers “for reasons beyond Apple’s control,” according to the company. Other Topics of Interest Russia Captured More Territory Than Ukraine Reclaimed in July, DeepState Reports Ukraine’s Defense Forces reduced the area of Russian-occupied territory, with 25 square kilometers attributed in May and 27 square kilometers in June. In June, the company took down the Max messenger from its App Store, with Google adopting a similar decision in July. It’s unclear how Russia would enforce the fine considering the company’s lack of headquarters in the country, where its products were sold via parallel imports. Russia had also targeted Western tech firms such as Google for its alleged noncompliance with Moscow’s demands in the past, including the decision in 2024 to fine the company an astronomical 2 decillion Russian rubles ($2.5 decillion) for refusing to reinstate more than a dozen pro-Kremlin accounts on YouTube. The amount is roughly 312.5 quintillion times Russia’s gross domestic product (GDP) of $8 trillion in 2023. Kyiv Post is Ukraine’s first and oldest English news organization, reporting since 1995. Its international reach – 97% of readers are outside of Ukraine – make it truly Ukraine’s global voice.