Russian media and internet regulator Roskomnadzor threatens fines for Apple and Google if they do not remove the app of the detained opposition leader Aleksei Navalny from their app stores.
A Russian court previously banned Navalny’s anti-corruption foundation because the foundation is extremist.
Navalny’s websites were already blocked by Roskomnadzor, after which supporters of the Kremlin critic posted messages on the app. The government of President Vladimir Putin is doing everything it can to hinder the opposition in the run-up to parliamentary elections later this month.
Navalny, 45, was sent to a penal camp earlier this year after returning from Germany. He was treated there for poisoning. By this treatment, he violated the provisions of his suspended sentence. As a result, he is serving a two-and-a-half-year sentence for fraud.
Navalny became very ill during a Russian domestic flight in August 2020. It was determined that he had been poisoned with the substance Novichok developed in the former Soviet Union in Germany. However, he made a full recovery. The United States and the European Union blame Russia for the poisoning.