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Apple Turns Off Payments in Russia

canadianreader said:
It’s unfortunate there must be artists and creative people that offer paid apps and subscriptions and now they can’t monetize their work.
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With all due respect, and with no belittling your point, that's the least of the worries of creatives in Russia who use the internet as a means of earning an income: the Kremlin is attempting to completely lock down the internet in Russia except for "whitelisted" sites and services , i.e. government controlled sites and services / sites and services "useful" to the government.

Crazy as it sounds, there is now a massive demand in Russia for pre-internet communications - faxes, pagers and CB radio equipment.

www.theguardian.com

Russia slowly trying to splinter its internet from rest of world, analysts say

Telegram is increasingly blocked and mobile internet users face blackouts in effort likened to Iranian shutdowns
www.theguardian.com www.theguardian.com
 
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Happy_John said:
Crazy as it sounds, there is now a massive demand in Russia for pre-internet communications - faxes, pagers and CB radio equipment.
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Wow I’m not up to date with news from Russia. Don’t they already know that innovation comes from people and not the government? How are they gonna compete on the world stage? With faxes and pagers? So ridiculous
 
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canadianreader said:
Wow I’m not up to date with news from Russia. Don’t they already know that innovation comes from people and not the government? How are they gonna compete on the world stage? With faxes and pagers? So ridiculous
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They're don't care, because they have no intention of competing at that level. The very rich in Russia are already very rich, and they have no interest in anyone else in the country becoming richer.

It seems Putin and Russia are going all-in on the idea of their whole economy being energy, weapons and bulk commodities. No space for pesky small businesses / non-government approved SMEs / social mobility.
 
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As a Russian living in Russia, I have to say it feels like a bad dream.

First came the sanctions from outside. Then came our own “sanctions.”

To be clear: until April, even though Russian bank cards stopped working for many payments, there was still a workaround — paying via mobile balance. You could top up your phone account and use that to pay for iCloud and other services.

Now our government has “gently asked” mobile operators to turn that off too. So it’s not Apple, and it’s not some US/EU decision this time — it’s us doing it to ourselves.
 
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can’t believe it took them this long to get around to doing that. Now where’s the rest of the world?
 
contacos said:
Surprised to learn the App Store was / is even still active in Russia. I thought it was shut down due to sanctions years ago
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That's the funny thing about sanctions.

Here's the thing: you can't deal with an entity or a person on the treasury's OFAC list - unless you're dealing with them "on a case by case basis" and billing them directly via credit card, not writing them an invoice and collecting the money later.
 
axantas said:
I would not be that rude. There was a time, when iPhones were allowed in Russia and probably many Russians are waiting for the moment this nightmare ends - preferably not in favour for Wladimir - to gain their liberty back.
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Not really. They are brainwashed for years 24x7 by fascist (bordering on Nazi-level) propaganda.

Goebbels had only radio and press, now there's TV and internets - you won't believe how effective that is.

Babushkas on streets root for "killing all those Ukrainian vermin" when interviewed - because that is literally what they hear on TV every day. It's normal for them now.

Overwhelming majority of russians geniunely believe that putin is god reincarnate and Ukraine, US, UK, any Western country basically should be destroyed. Living in poverty when all you have it the TV spewing hate speech 24x7 will do that for you.

What's worse, they don't want to accept or even have an interest in ANY information related to objective reality. Doing that would mean admitting russia is doing something wrong and they support fascism, which they cannot do. Human brains just do not work this way.

Propaganda managed to convince them that slavery is freedom and war is peace, orwellian as hell.

It's almost like North Korea there now.

I'm fluent in russian, used to live in russia for decades and follow the conflict closely: relatives in Ukraine. It's genuinely scary stuff there now, almost impossible to comprehend, how people can dehumanize themselves so willingly.

P.S. Even so-called 'good russians' would go 'war is bad of course, but...' when asked direct question about it. And then go on with casual racism, chauvinism and 'great russian culture' bullcap.
 
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2128506 said:
Not really. They are brainwashed for years 24x7 by fascist (bordering on Nazi-level) propaganda.

Goebbels had only radio and press, now there's TV and internets - you won't believe how effective that is.

Babushkas on streets root for "killing all those Ukrainian vermin" when interviewed - because that is literally what they hear on TV every day. It's normal for them now.

Overwhelming majority of russians geniunely believe that putin is god reincarnate and Ukraine, US, UK, any Western country basically should be destroyed. Living in poverty when all you have it the TV spewing hate speech 24x7 will do that for you.

What's worse, they don't want to accept or even have an interest in ANY information related to objective reality. Doing that would mean admitting russia is doing something wrong and they support fascism, which they cannot do. Human brains just do not work this way.

Propaganda managed to convince them that slavery is freedom and war is peace, orwellian as hell.

It's almost like North Korea there now.

I'm fluent in russian, used to live in russia for decades and follow the conflict closely: relatives in Ukraine. It's genuinely scary stuff there now, almost impossible to comprehend, how people can dehumanize themselves so willingly.

P.S. Even so-called 'good russians' would go 'war is bad of course, but...' when asked direct question about it. And then go on with casual racism, chauvinism and 'great russian culture' bullcap.
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Just an observation, but you could take your post and replace "Russia" and "Russian" with a certain other country ( quite a few in fact), and this would still be relevant.

I don't disagree with your points necessarily, and given where I live, I'm obviously very strongly against The Russian EMpire/ USSR / Russian Federation (this has never changed in any real sense, expecting a short-lived "blip") but toxic nationalism / imperialism is not exclusive to Russia.

Invading and annexing other countries for their natural resources or simply territory, but claiming it's being done for ideological reasons, is not as uncommon as we'd hope.
 
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leonremi said:
I suggest they leave Russia then.
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Unfortunately, that's a hell of lot easier for someone on the outside to say then for someone on the inside to do.

Firstly, you would have to uproot your family and whole life, and secondly, you would be a refugee/immigrant moving to another country, which, these days, is to assume you might be treated very badly wherever you end up.
 
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contacos said:
Surprised to learn the App Store was / is even still active in Russia. I thought it was shut down due to sanctions years ago
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Then you'd be really surprised to learn how many businesses and markets are still allowed to operate in Russia. Every textile company has been allowed to travel to Russia and continue to operate.
 
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