App Store complicated the operation of another application related to the Crimea

Apple's App Store store has blocked the Moigorod application, which combines a local reference book, a poster and a forum for residents of the cities of Russia and the CIS countries. In particular, the application also provides information for residents of Crimea, as well as unrecognized DPR and LPR - residents of these three territories make up about 12% of the audience of the service.

As the founder and general director of Moigorod LLC Dmitry Begovatov told Kommersant , the application was blocked in the store on October 6. Then the developers received a notification that said that "App Store cannot place, distribute and conduct business with certain applications or developers associated with countries under the US embargo." The company also advised the creators of the application to seek clarifications to the US Treasury, which was done.

The letter received from the Ministry of Finance reports that Russia is not among the countries under the "comprehensive" US sanctions as DPRK or Iran, and that American business can limit work with Russian companies only if they are associated with persons from the sanctions list. At the same time, American companies evaluate the risks independently and may decide not to cooperate with the companies "from individual territories".

After receiving this letter, Begovatov sent it to Apple, and the Moigorod application was unlocked in the store, but the updates prepared by developers do not undergo a check. On this occasion, the company sent the Appellation Appeal administration.

This is not the first similar case. So, in August of this year, it was reported that the App Store blocked the Puzuly.ru housing application, 20% of the reservations in which are performed in Crimea. According to the company's general director Yuri Kuznetsov, on October 18, the service reappeared in the App Store. To return it to the Apple store, the developers had to "remove all the references to the objects of the Crimean Peninsula."