Apple removes Russian Facebook competitor VK from App Store

Like many western companies, Apple voluntarily scaled back its Russian operations after the country launched its latest attack on Ukraine in February. It stopped selling its products, forcing the country to add iPhones to a list of goods that could be imported and resold without permission of the trademark owner, under the so-called parallel import scheme.

The latest tranche of UK sanctions was issued on Monday, in response to the sham referendums held by Russian authorities in occupied Ukraine to demonstrate consent for annexing the territories. The latest sanctions include 39 members of the leadership of Gazprombank and Sberbank, state-linked banks that between them own a little under half of VK, formerly known as VKontakte.