The Russian Federation banned the sale of gadgets without 40 pre-installed applications

The extended list of 40 names was approved by the Prime Minister of Russia, Mikhail Myshustin, Interfax reports. It will enter into force on January 1, 2024. It includes, among others, “Zen”, “Odnoklassniki”, OK Live, the Mir Pay payment system, “Gosuslugy”, VK Video, VK’s voice assistant “Marusya”, applications “Pervogo Kanala”, NTV and “Smotrim” (VGTRK) .

The law on the mandatory pre-installation of Russian programs on smartphones, tablets, computers and TVs with the Smart TV function sold in Russia entered into force in April 2021. Selects programs for pre-installation of Mintsifry.

A fine of up to 200,000 rubles is provided for the sale of devices without pre-installed Russian software. The government argued that this law is “an attempt to establish fair rules of the game and competition with foreign business” and “stimulate demand for domestic solutions.”

In 2021, one of the largest Apple companies refused to pre-install Russian applications and software and threatened to withdraw from the Russian market. After that, the document was called the “law against Apple”. A few months later, as a compromise, the gadgets included the function of selecting applications from the list that the user could download when activating the device.

The Chinese companies Huawei and Xiaomi, as well as the South Korean corporation Samsung, announced their readiness to meet the new requirements of Russian legislation.