‘Throw it away or…’: Kremlin tells officials to stop using iPhones
The Kremlin has told officials involved in preparations for Russia’s 2024 presidential election to stop using iPhones, said a report on Monday. The Kremlin’s direction comes amid concerns that the devices of the American tech major may be vulnerable to Western intelligence agencies.
Sergei Kiriyenko, first deputy head of the presidential administration, told officials involved in domestic politics to change their phones by April 1, the report said citing a Russian daily Kommersant. “It’s all over for the iPhone: either throw it away or give it to the children,” one official told Kommersant as per Reuters. “Everyone will have to do it in March.”
According to the report, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov could not confirm the report but said smartphones should not be used for official business. “Any smartphone has a fairly transparent mechanism, no matter what operating system it has – Android or iOS. Naturally, they are not used for official purposes.”
Kommersant said the Kremlin may provide other devices with different operating systems to replace the iPhones and the order to cease using Apple phones had been directed at those involved in domestic politics.
In 2020, Dmitry Peskov said that even Vladimir Putin did not use smartphones. He, however, said, “Putin does occasionally use the internet”.
Two years before this, in December 2018, Peskov had said that Putin did not use a phone to avoid data snooping. “As far as I know, he does not have a phone,” he said while speaking to the Rossiya-24 TV channel. Explaining why Putin did not use a phone, the spokesperson said using a cell phone means complete transparency and can lead to a leak of confidential data.
In Russia, the presidential elections are scheduled to be held in March 2024. According to an independent survey conducted by Levada-Center, President Vladimir Putin’s approval rating is over 80 per cent despite a year-long war with Ukraine. The war, which Putin would have wanted to end quickly, has drained Russia’a resources and cost human lives.
Moscow has blamed the US for prolonging the war by supplying arms and ammunition to Ukraine.
