Access to Apple’s official website and the App Store deteriorated sharply in Russia at the end of last week. The outlet Verstka reported this, citing data from the international OONI project, which monitors internet censorship and network disruptions.
According to those figures, the number of anomalous connections to Apple resources began rising on July 16, a Thursday. In the following days, availability of the company’s website fell to about 30–40%, while the App Store’s availability was around 60%. The report says no similar problems were recorded in other countries.
This information is also supported by data from the service Sboy.rf. Its charts show that, starting on July 16, users began reporting App Store outages on a mass scale. Judging by the comments, the disruptions were observed in various regions of Russia.
At the same time, availability of Google Play in Russia is estimated at roughly 40–50%. However, OONI’s charts indicate that a high number of anomalous connections to that platform has been recorded for the past several months, not only in recent days.
Verstka writes that the problems affecting Apple’s resources may point to a partial restriction of the App Store by the Russian authorities. At the same time, the press service of Roskomnadzor said as early as July 14 in a comment to Interfax that the agency was not restricting access to Apple and Google services.
Context
In early June, Apple removed the Russian messenger Maks from the App Store. The company said the decision was due to international sanctions, but did not specify which ones. A few weeks later, other applications belonging to VK also disappeared from Apple’s digital store.
On July 13, the European Union imposed sanctions on VK and its subsidiary Communication Platform, which developed the Maks messenger. A few days later, Google also removed the holding’s applications from its own store.