Artem Sychev, Advisor to the General Director of Positive Technologies, spoke about the application filtering system in the domestic marketplace RuStore. According to him, the Russian application store uses the same approaches as the application stores of Google and Apple.
In general, supply chain attacks, of course, exist and are present. But I would not say that the filtering system that Google or Apple has or had is much better than the filtering system that RuStore has. Applications don't just end up there; they also undergo a certain moderation and control.
RuStore became mandatory for pre-installation on electronic devices sold in Russia starting January 1, 2023. Xiaomi, Vivo, Realme, Infinix, and Itel pre-install it on their smartphones.
Currently, RuStore is only available to Android users, but the marketplace developer, VK, has stated that it is considering adapting the application for iOS devices, as well as planning to adapt it for the domestic "Aurora" OS by the end of this year.