MOSCOW, February 4. /TASS/. Apple, the multinational Big Tech giant, has opened a local representative office in Russia, thereby becoming the first corporation to comply with Moscow’s new rules on requiring foreign tech firms to localize their operations in the country, Russia’s Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology and Mass Media announced on Friday.

According to the service, the company fulfilled the requirement to "create a branch, or open a representative office, or establish a Russian legal entity".

In accordance with the new law, foreign Internet companies with a daily audience of more than 500,000 users must open their authorized representative offices in Russia. The nation’s mass media watchdog has already published a list of companies that are required to open representative offices, and it includes Google, Apple, Meta Platforms, Twitter, TikTok, Telegram, and others.