Apple had been forced to comply with Russian demands to show annexed Crimea as a part of Russia on its apps. Russian military forcefully annexed Crimea from Ukraine in March 2014 which drew international allegations on Russia. The region has a Russian speaking majority.
The annexed Crimea region when viewed on Apple maps and its weather shows it as a part of Russian territory now when viewed from Russia.
It doesn’t show the same when viewed from elsewhere. The Duma the Russian parliament’s lower house said in a statement in a media that the Apple devices now show Crimea and Sevastopol region as a part of Russian territory. Russia treats the Sevastopol which is a naval port city as a separate region.
While checking Apple’s iPhone in Moscow it was found that the changes have been effected on Apple’s devices and maps which use the Russian version of Apple’s app store. Apple had been in talks with Duma for several months and the Duma was not happy to see how Crimea was labeled in its maps. Apple suggested that the Crimea region could be depicted as an unidentified territory a part which neither belongs to Russia or Ukraine to which the Duma was not satisfied.
Vasily Piskaryov the chairman of the Duma’s anticorruption committee said that it reminded the tech giant company that representing Crimea as an unidentified territory was a criminal offense under Russian law. He further said that there would be no further demands from the Russian government as it had got what it wanted.
Goggle which also has its own pas and weather apps does not show Crimea as a part of Russia or Ukraine. The European Union and the US does not recognize the annexation of Crimea to Russia.
The conflict in the region had been harshly condemned by the West and Ukrainians of arming the separatists to cause civilian unrest in the country.