"Privacy. That's iPhone." Apple pulled 1,213 apps from its Russian App Store last year at the Kremlin's request — more than from China, Vietnam, India, Korea, and the U.S. combined. 🧵 Most were VPN apps used to access WhatsApp

To understand why they're doing this, you have to look at what the Kremlin wants people to use instead — a state messenger called MAX, built by VK, whose CEO is the son of Kremlin domestic policy adviser Sergei Kiriyenko. It's an app with a back door for security services. [2/12]

A federal law passed in 2025 required MAX to be pre-installed on every smartphone sold in Russia by September. The design follows China's WeChat: one app for messages, payments, government services, digital passport, medical insurance, and tax records. [3/12]

MAX runs on servers in Russia with no end-to-end encryption. Under Russian law, the FSB has direct access through the SORM system. And in March 2025, a researcher using the pseudonym runetfreedom reverse-engineered the Android version and found something even more incriminating. [4/12]

A spy module embedded in the code periodically pings Telegram and WhatsApp servers to check whether you can reach them — a way to detect whether you are using a VPN. [5/12]

When it finds a VPN, the app sends your user ID, IP address, mobile operator, and connection type to its servers. The module is toggled remotely by the developer. The user cannot see it and cannot turn it off. [6/12]

The state has been pushing the app hard: Russia's education ministry is moving all school chats onto the platform — over 20 million students and teachers. Parents now need MAX to see grades, schedules, and kindergarten enrollment forms. [7/12]

Universities in Siberia threatened students with exam bans for not installing it. In Kazan, building access was blocked without the app's electronic pass. Property managers face fines of up to 300,000 rubles for failing to set up official building chats on the platform. [8/12]

Banks are being drawn in too: there's draft legislation that would require Russians to confirm financial transactions through the messenger. The banking sector warned this creates a single point of failure — one cyberattack could paralyze the entire financial system. [9/12]

Earlier this spring, Russian regional outlets published nearly identical articles urging citizens to delete Telegram before March 31, warning of cyberattacks and overheating phones. Meduza traced the template to PrimPress, a site run by an adviser to a regional governor. [10/12]

Which brings us back to Apple. The 1,213 apps stripped from the Russian App Store last year include ExpressVPN, NordVPN, Proton VPN, and dozens of others. The tools people need to protect themselves were removed because Russia's censorship agency, Roskomnadzor, demanded it. [11/12]

The Kremlin's messenger, with no encryption and a built-in spy module, stays on the App Store, while VPN apps that protected people's privacy get removed. It's hard to take Apple's privacy commitments seriously after that, isn't it? [12/12]

Meanwhile WhatsApp still works in Russia 🤣🤣🤣

@threadreaderapp unroll

If you want to do business in a country, you have to follow the laws and regulations of that country. Why are people supporting this nonsense that US tech companies, who regulate their app stores to suit US authorities, should be allowed to do as they please in other countries?

I WILL NEVER BUY FROM APPLE AGAIN!

@Kasparov63 GrapheneOS has entered the chat

@Kasparov63 The UK too!!! And then banned Apple From telling people about it. But we’re a democracy and not a police state

They should just have refused. I'd like to see the Russian authorities banning iPhones.

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