That's not entirely true. Apple is big enough that they can ignore, bend, or even change local laws when it suits them, especially as it pertains to their operations outside the U.S.
It makes one wonder who or what made this demand worth fulfilling for Apple, but it could just as easily be someone incompetent at Apple blindly fulfilling a takedown request from the Russian government because it's in their job description to follow such demands and they didn't realize that a simple app takedown request had significant geopolitical implications. Who knows. Either way, Apple has definitely strayed far from the vision of their 1984-themed commercial back in the day where they shattered big brother with a hammer...
> Apple struck a deal with the government that will show users a prompt when first configuring a device in Russia to pre-install apps from a list of government-approved software. Users will have the ability to decline the installation of certain apps.
Apps you can decline? And uninstall? We are talking about quite different things here. Not to mention every Android with pre-installed bloatware.
I mean, there's some big questions left out there. It says 'certain' apps. Is it all? Or just some?
If you do opt-out, does anybody get notified? Is it reasonable users are concerned somebody might get notified?
There's a lot going on there. And just to point out, this has moved on from saying Apple only removing features, to debating how bad the features they've added are.
It is very uncertain, who has added the word "certain", as quoted statement is just talking about offering:
> users will be offered a choice of applications from Russian developers, which they will be able to choose for further installation on their iPhone or iPad
