Russia Pressured Apple And Google To Remove App From Vladimir Putin's Opposition

Politics can be described as activities associated with the governance of a country or an area, by involving debate and conflicts among individuals or parties having, or hoping to achieve power.

And when dealing with oppositions, especially when it comes to voting, the parties involved would do anything to win, regardless of what their approval ratings are.

This time, Vladimir Putin's ruling Russia United party is expected to win after a three-day voting process, and that it has asked both Apple and Google to remove the Alexei Navalny‘s app, the app from the jailed critic of Kremlin, from their respective stores in Russia.

Notably, this move came only hours before the country was hosting its presidential elections.

The app in question was created by Navalny‘s organization, which promotes candidates that cold defeat Putin's party through a smart voting project

Navalny had this idea back in 2018. When his organization implemented the app, it aimed to at least 1,300 candidates at various levels.

In response to his app, the court at both Kremlin and Moscow labeled Navalny's organization as "extremist."

Following that statement, the Russian government invited executives of both Apple and Google to the upper house of the parliament for a meeting, to pressurize both companies to remove the tactical voting app

Before this, both Apple and Google were only threatened with fines by the Russian government.

Shortly after the removal of the app, Ivan Zhandov, one of Navalny’s closest allies, tweeted a screenshot of Apple’s response to the organization citing the extremist label.

He said that that both "Apple [and] Google are making a big mistake."

Zhdanov also uploaded a video on YouTube to reach his supporters, to make and and continue Navalny's tactical voting mission.