Russian ban on Apple devices might remind you of another country's ban on a different manufacturer

Imagine a government announces a ban on the use of certain tech devices by government officials because of fears that the products made by this manufacturer spy on members of this government. Now what would your reaction be if we said that the government was the U.S. government and the manufacturer was Huawei? You might first yawn, but go on to say that this action was warranted by the U.S. to protect the security of the nation, right?

But what if we told you that the country we are talking about is Russia and the manufacturer whose tech products are banned from use by government officials in that country is Apple? You'd be outraged, but possibly in a different way. According to the Financial Times (via Engadget), starting tomorrow the Russian trade ministry will prohibit the use of iPhone handsets, iPad tablets, Macs and other Apple devices for all work-related purposes.

Besides the trade ministry, other Russian agencies such as the telecommunications and mass media ministry are in the process of developing similar bans which, again, cover all Apple devices. The government will allow Apple products to be used for personal use as long as no government-related work is done using them.

The Russians say that Apple products are spying on them and early last month the country's Federal Security Service (FSB) said that it discovered a "spying operation by US intelligence agencies" that revolved around thousands of iPhone units. The FSB said Apple worked with U.S. signal intelligence to "infect" these iPhone units with software to monitor conversations. While the FSB did not have any evidence to prove the allegations, this didn't stop the Russian security agency from making them.

Apple responded by saying that it has "never worked with any government to build a backdoor into any Apple product, and never will." Apple disabled Apple Pay in Russia after the latter invaded Ukraine and later stopped selling its products in Russia.

The Russian government seeks to be totally self-reliant on domestically developed hardware and software. Last year, President Vladimir Putin ordered businesses involved in "critical information infrastructure" to move to Russian-developed software by 2025.

Earlier this year, a subsidiary of a Russian defense industry company called Rostec developed the AYYA T1 smartphone. This was supposed to be a replacement for the iPhone in Russia and of the 5,000 units produced, only 905, or 18% were sold to Russian consumers. Retailers in the country selling the device had to mark it down to 11,000 rubles ($140), or breakeven.

Apple's denial that it would never put a backdoor into any Apple product almost sounds like Huawei's past denials. And the FSB's lack of evidence showing that Apple's products spied on Russians mirrors the lack of evidence the U.S. has about Huawei devices collecting data and sending it to Beijing. That's not to say that Huawei never did anything illegal (even besides the theft of Tappy's parts) and the company was indicted by a Grand Jury in 2019. None of the charges involved using a backdoor to spy on the U.S.

The issue is one of trust. Whether you are talking about the Russian government banning Apple or the U.S. government banning Huawei, the bans are in place because the governments involved just can't take the chance that information will be discovered and used against them even if they have no evidence that this is currently happening.

I wish I knew the answer. I'm just a tech news writer and this situation is sad. I would have loved the opportunity to check out the Huawei Mate 50 Pro last year and had the opportunity to consider buying one. It's naive to think that someday these differences might be ironed out. But that shouldn't stop us from hoping that it happens.