In the midst of the Ukrainian crisis, Apple has just opened a headquarters in Russia

The timing couldn’t be worse. While Russia has just declared war on Ukraine, Apple opened its headquarters in Russia a few days ago. The initiative does not come from Apple: a law decided by Roskomnadzor (Russian telecoms regulator) provides that foreign technology firms wishing to trade in Russia must have a physical presence in the country.

Apple happens to be the first major US company to comply with this directive. In fact, the Cupertino company would even be the only company to have complied at the moment. The Russian telecommunications regulator had initially given the GAFAs until the end of 2021 to comply with the new laws in force. Alphabet (Google), Facebook and Twitter were in turn to take the plunge in the coming weeks… unless of course the Ukrainian crisis comes to upset the situation.