The Russian opposition denounced massive fraud during the Sept. 19 legislative elections, which saw the ruling party win a two-thirds majority.
Arrested opponent Alexeï Navalny accused, on Thursday, September 23, Apple and Google of collusion with the Kremlin. The two digital giants withdrew the opposition’s application dedicated to legislative elections, at the request of Russian authorities.
“If anything surprised me during the election, it’s not so much Putin who falsifies the results as how the almighty Big Tech dutifully became his accomplice.” released the Russian opponent in a message posted by his team on Instagram. “On the big screen, they tell us they want to ‘make the world a better place,’ but inside they’re just liars and hypocrites.”, he added, explicitly targeting Google, Apple and Telegram.
Under pressure from Moscow, Google and Apple agreed on Friday to remove the Alexey Navalny team’s app from their Russian stores. The latter allowed, in particular, to obtain electoral instructions to vote against Kremlin candidates during the legislative elections held from 17 to 19 September. The Russian opposition denounced massive fraud during these legislative elections, which saw the ruling party win a two-thirds majority, the end of a tailor-made election from which Vladimir Putin’s detractors were excluded.
