Russian officials increase public procurement of iPhones fourfold despite their ban
Pravda Ukraine
Despite the heavy prohibition on American-made devices, Russian officials spent four times more of state money on iPhone procurement.
Source: The Moscow Times
Details: According to the results of the first nine months of 2024, the volume of public procurement for iPhones was four times greater than in the same period last year: RUB 6,879,899 (approx. US$71,400) versus RUB 1,642,166 (approx. US$17,000).
Part of the public procurement for iPhones was justified by the inability to comply with the ban on the use of foreign software, which is available on these devices. For example, one of the applications stated that the major requirement for purchasing the iPhone 13 is the availability of a specialised Voice Over program, which provides text-to-speech for apps and helps blind and visually impaired users to interact with the device.
The majority of public procurement was made by companies associated with the state. Teploenergo LLC, based in St Petersburg, made the largest purchase of Apple phones this year, spending more than RUB 3 million (approx. US$71,400).
Aeroexpress LLC purchased RUB 517,000 (approx. US$5,300) worth of iPhones. The Kremlin Palace was also among the buyers, purchasing American iPhones for RUB 830,000 (approx. US$8,600).
State officials began prohibiting the use of iPhones in the summer of 2023, when the FSB and FSO discovered that several thousand Apple devices had been infected with an American spy virus that was monitoring Russian users.
Following that, officials in the Kremlin, the government, government departments, and employees of state-owned companies were forced to renounce the use of the iPhone for official purposes. The prohibition was specifically implemented in the ministries of transport, industry and trade, finance, and health, as well as Rostec, the Federal Air Transport Agency, Russian Railways, Kamaaz, and others.
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