Apple updates maps to show Crimea as Russian territory

Apple has updated its Apple Maps and Weather apps to display the annexed territory of Crimea as Russian territory when viewed from Russia, in response to pressure from Moscow, according to the BBC.

Russia provoked international condemnation after annexing the region from Ukraine in 2014. The region will not appear as Russian territory in the apps in any other country.

“Crimea and Sevastopol now appear on Apple devices as Russian territory,” the State Duma, the lower house of the Russian Parliament, said in a statement when referencing the disputed territory as well as the naval port city that Moscow considers a separate region, according to the BBC.

Russia and Apple executives had been negotiating over what the State Duma called “inaccurate” labeling for months, with the company offering initially to display the region as part of neither country.

Vasily Piskaryov, chairman of the Duma security and anti-corruption committee, told the country’s Interfax news agency that Russian officials told Apple it was a crime to label Crimea as Ukrainian territory under Russian law, according to the BBC.

“There is no going back,” Piskaryov said. “Today, with Apple, the situation is closed — we have received everything we wanted.”