NEW YORK, November 30. /TASS/. Apple plans to take a "deeper look" at how the company handles disputed borders" after it referred to the Crimean Peninsula as part of Russia in its Maps and Weather apps for Russian users, Reuters reported citing a company spokeswoman on Friday.

"We review international law as well as relevant U.S. and other domestic laws before making a determination in labelling on our Maps and make changes if required by law. We are taking a deeper look at how we handle disputed borders in our services and may make changes in the future as a result," Trudy Muller, the company’s spokeswoman, told Reuters.

According to the news agency, Apple made such a comment after it was reported that the company had "changed the way it displays locations in Crimea in its software, in a nod to Russian politicians who have demanded the peninsula be referred to as part of Russia."

Muller told Reuters that Apple had not made any changes to its maps outside of Russia and made the change for Russian users because of a new law that went into effect in that country.

Apple has not yet responded to a TASS request to elaborate.

Earlier this week, Chairman of the Russian State Duma (lower house of parliament) Commission on Foreign Interference in Russia’s Internal Affairs Vasily Piskarev told reporters that Apple had satisfied the demands of Russian MPs to show Crimea as part of Russia on all its apps, including the Weather app.

After the coup d’·tat in Ukraine in February 2014, Crimean and Sevastopol officials held a referendum, in which 96.7% of Crimeans and 95.6% of Sevastopol voters chose to secede from Ukraine and join Russia. Eighty percent of the voting population participated in the referendum. The Russian president signed the reunification deal on March 18, 2014, which the Federation Council (upper house of the Russian parliament) ratified on March 21. Despite the results of the referendum, Kiev, along with various predominantly Western countries, refused to recognize Crimea as a part of Russia.

In 2014, the European Union introduced sanctions against Russia due to the events and Ukraine and Crimea, repeatedly expanding and prolonging them since.