Russian users of smartphones based on the Android operating system may be left without Google services, said Rostelecom Vice President for Information Technology Darius Khalitov.

“There are very high risks that services may be blocked in one form or another,” Khalitov said in an interview with RTVI. He noted that this concerns Google Drive and Gmail, as well as Google Mobile Services, which include various geolocation tags, weather forecasts, push notifications, etc.

According to him, Russians should understand that all foreign services “may disappear in principle <…> or the user path to using them will be inconvenient.” “And this, unfortunately, is the reality we live with,” emphasized the Rostelecom Vice President.

He recalled that the Android operating system is not Russian and “technologically independent.” “As the practice of recent years shows, anything can happen in this world. Therefore, in general, if desired, both YouTube services and Android phones can turn into, perhaps, not pumpkins, but our users may encounter certain difficulties,” Khalitov concluded.

In July of this year, Rostelecom announced that “technical problems” had arisen in the operation of Google equipment in Russia. In connection with this, the state-owned company warned of a possible sharp drop in the speed of loading videos on YouTube. Later, Roskomnadzor began to slow down YouTube, and the head of the State Duma Committee on Information Policy, Alexander Khinshtein, admitted that such a decision was made in response to “violation of Russian legislation.”

After this, the Ministry of Digital Development reported that Google had limited the creation of new accounts in its services for users from Russia. The agency claimed that the company had stopped sending codes for registering accounts to Russian mobile numbers. Russian users of Google services were advised to create backup copies of their data and switch to domestic platforms.

In turn, Google denied problems with equipment in Russia and promised to support the company's free services for Russians. At the same time, the corporation noted that it is aware of the problems of users in Russia and is trying to solve them.