Ukraine’s Minister for Foreign Affairs accused Apple of ignorance after news reports this week the tech giant labeled Crimea as part of Russia in local versions of its Maps app, CNET reported.
Apple’s move came after negotiations between the tech giant and the Russian government over the way Crimea is represented, the BBC reported Wednesday. Russia annexed the peninsula in 2014, leading to international outrage and the country’s expulsion from the G8 summit.
“IPhones are great products,” Vadym Prystaiko, Ukraine’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, appeared to tweet from his verified Twitter account Wednesday. “Seriously, though, @Apple, please, please, stick to high-tech and entertainment. Global politics is not your strong side. #CrimeaIsUkraine”
Apple had been in talks with Russia for several months over what the State Duma described as “inaccuracies” in the way Crimea was labelled. The tech giant originally suggested it could show Crimea as undefined territory – part of neither Russia nor Ukraine.
But Vasily Piskaryov, chairman of the Duma security and anti-corruption committee, said Apple had complied with the Russian constitution. He said representatives of the company were reminded that labelling Crimea as part of Ukrainian territory was a criminal offence under Russian law, according to Interfax news agency.
“There is no going back,” Piskaryov said.
“Today, with Apple, the situation is closed – we have received everything we wanted,” Russia Business Today informed.
The State Duma, Russia’s lower house of parliament, said in a statement on Wednesday that it had met with Apple’s Russia representative Daria Ermolina, whom it said had confirmed what Russia described as “inaccuracies” that had finally been “eliminated”.
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