MOSCOW, September 16. /TASS/. Specific crimes are being committed with the participation of Apple and Google, and the scale of these crimes may only grow in the coming days, Head of the Interim Commission on Protecting State Sovereignty and Preventing Interference in the Domestic Affairs of the Russian Federation Council Vladimir Dzhabarov said on Thursday.

"Specific crimes are being committed virtually with the participation of Apple and Google, their scale can only grow in the coming days. Campaigning prohibited by law is planned using ‘smart voting’ specifically on voting days, which is also a blatant violation of another Russian legal norm," he said.

He added that the behavior of foreign IT platforms actually hinders the free expression of will of Russian citizens. "Thus, there is a direct foreign interference in the elections. We warn about aggravating circumstances - the fact that the so-called ‘smart voting’ project and the Navalny app on Apple and Google [stores] were developed and promoted by the Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK, labeled as a foreign agent in Russia - TASS) and individuals affiliated with it," Dzhabarov said.

He also warned that the app’s developers endanger the safety of Russian citizens due to personal data leaks.

Dzhabarov drew attention to the fact that US IT companies, as well as their employees bear both corporate and personal responsibility for violating Russian legislation. "Structures and people associated with Apple and Google should be aware that their deliberately illegal actions and criminal inaction after receiving warnings from Russian officials will inevitably have legal consequences, including criminal ones. Attempts to hide behind some legal particularities of registering subsidiaries in Russia will not only be ignored, but also considered as aggravating circumstances," he added.

"You cannot have multi-billion dollar profits in Russia by breaking the law and shifting responsibility to some fictitious organizations. People who help parent companies withdraw from responsibility in the Russian Federation will be punished," he noted.