Russian lawmakers summon Google and Apple representatives to discuss election interference
The upper house of Russia’s Parliament would like a word with Google and Apple. On Wednesday, the head of the Federation Council’s “Commission on Sovereignty” told journalists that his group has summoned representatives from the two U.S. tech giants for a session tomorrow, September 16, a day before Russians begin voting in parliamentary elections.
Committee head Andrey Klimov told the state news agency RIA Novosti that he and his colleagues have their eyes on Google and Apple and “more than a few questions” about their operations in Russia:
The commission has decided to discuss issues related to interference by American digital platforms in Russia’s State Duma elections.
In early September, Russia’s federal censor, RKN, ordered Apple, Google, Cloudflare, and Cisco to cease all technical support to imprisoned opposition politician Alexey Navalny’s “Smart Vote” project, which has used these companies’ services to evade RKN’s efforts to block it online. RKN has warned that doing business with Smart Vote will be construed as foreign election interference.