Russia might launch new Google Play Store on May 9

Google Play is owned by Alphabet and is used to download apps and games. Tech developers in Russia are making their own version of the store. They plan to launch it on May 9, which is a national holiday in Russia that marks the end of World War II.

Western sanctions against Russia for its actions in Ukraine started to have an impact on banking in Russia this month. YouTube and Google Play stopped all payment-based services in Russia, including subscriptions.

Also Read: Spotify has joined the long list of apps by suspending its services in Russia amidst war

Russians can no longer use Google Play to buy apps, so developers have lost their source of income. Vladimir Zykov, the director of projects at Digital Platforms, a digital development group, said this. Google’s Play Store and YouTube’s payment-based services have been stopped in Russia. It’s because of this that we have set up a Russian app store called NashStore.

NashStore, which means “our store” in English, will be for Android phones and should be able to work with Russian Mir bank cards in the future, a statement said. Russia celebrates the anniversary of the Soviet Union’s victory over Nazi Germany in World War II on May 9 with a parade through Moscow’s Red Square.

A few weeks ago, Google said it had removed mobile apps linked to RT and Sputnik from its Play store. This move was in line with an earlier move to remove the Russian state publishers from its news features. News agency Interfax says that last week, Russia’s communications regulator blocked the news aggregator service Google News because it allowed access to what it called fake information about the country’s military operation in Ukraine, which it says is not true.

Many tech companies have cut back on the distribution and advertising tools they give to Russian news outlets over the last month because they think they are spreading false information about the war in Ukraine. The European Commission is preparing to ban them because they are spreading misinformation.

For more updates, stay tuned with us!!