GoKawiilAccording to Apple’s 2025 App Store Transparency Report, Russia is the runaway world leader in one category: Demanding that Apple remove apps from its App Store.
In 2025, Russia asked that Apple remove 1,213 apps—many of these VPN apps designed to thwart the country’s draconian Internet censorship. (Vietnam was number two, requesting that 335 apps be blocked.)
Russia is essentially trying to build a closed, spy-friendly, domestic version of the Internet. While the Russian government loves demanding app bans from Apple, it only wants bad, degenerate apps banned. It does not want good, strong Russian apps banned, such as VKontakte (a Russian version of Facebook) or the Max messaging app (state-mandated communications software so creepy that one exile publication described it with the insanely long headline, “You already know Russia’s Max messenger spies on users. You probably don’t know just how many surveillance tools it hides, including even a neural network for eavesdropping.”)
In the last few weeks, Apple has blocked both of these key apps, making them unavailable to iPhone users in Russia. Existing installs will still function, but Apple has shut down push notifications from the apps, making them far less useful. Max was blocked on in the first week of June. VKontakte was blocked on June 25.
According to the Moscow Times, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said yesterday that “the Russian government expects an explanation from Apple for the removal of VK apps.”