Russia’s trade ministry has today passed an order to prohibit all Apple devices in government offices, but the officials may use them for personal work.
This comes after the Russian FSB claims that Apple was working with the US intelligence agencies to let them spy on Russians – which Apple denied. Although many Russian government agencies have prohibited using Apple devices at the workplace, the country also tries to depend less on US products.
Russia Dumps Apple Products
Amidst the war between Russia and Ukraine, the former prohibited using Apple products at government offices. As noted by the Financial Times, the Russian trade ministry on Monday passed an order – to ban the use of iPhones for all “work purposes.”
Well, some other agencies, like Russia’s telecommunications and mass media ministries, have either been banned or plan to make similar rules soon. Well, the fresh order from Russia’s trade ministry makes a slight exception – to let the government officials use Apple products for personal use, provided they don’t do any related work on them.
This decision comes a month after the Russian intelligence agency – Federal Security Service (FSB), claims of a “spying operation by US intelligence agencies” involving Apple devices. Without sharing any evidence, the FSB says thousands of iPhones, including those used by the country’s diplomatic missions in NATO countries, had been “infected” with monitoring software!
Further, it accused Apple of working closely with the US signal intelligence to provide agents “with a wide range of control tools.” However, Apple denied these claims, and Russia continued to disbelieve and prohibited using Apple devices for critical works. The country has long been trying to lessen its dependence on foreign-made technology, especially from the US.
