Apple terminates registered developers living in Crimea

Thanks to U.S. sanctions against Crimea, Apple has terminated Registered Apple Developers living in the region, thus preventing them from publishing apps in the Apple App Store. Executive Order 13685, signed last month by President Obama, prevents the import into the U.S. of goods, services and technology from Crimea. Apple has sent a letter to developers affected by the Executive Order, which effectively ends their ability to act as a developer for Apple, pursuant to the RAD agreement that developers must sign.

The U.S. has opposed Russia's occupation of Crimea last March. Combined with similar sanctions from the EU, the goal is to put economic pressure on Russia.

Besides blocking imports from the Crimean region into the U.S., property owned in the U.S. by people living in Crimea are blocked. In other words, previously earned proceeds from an app written by a developer in the area cannot be paid out. However, there appears to be a pretty big loophole. Affected developers could change their address to a Russian location and will be allowed to sign up for the Registered Apple Developer program all over again.


source: U.S.Treasury (PDF), @yuritkachenko via TechCrunch