Russian horizontal marketplace giant Avito woke up to confusing news this week when it noticed its app is no longer visible or searchable on Apple's app store.
Avito has already confirmed it is in conversations with Apple to understand why its app was delisted, but details remain thin.
However, given American sanctions over several high-profile Russian investors, one of whom is Ivan Tavrin—the man who owns Avito via Kismet Capital Group—it's not infeasible that a political play may be behind Apple being told in no uncertain terms to stop advertising Tavrin's billion-dollar asset.
Tavrin's name was added to the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctions list in December 2023, while his investment companies Kismet Capital Group, Kismet Consulting LLC and Kismet Telecom Infrastructure LLC were also named.
Officially, Avito was not on the list of sanctioned entities at the time of the judgment.
Avito has advised iPhone users not to try to reinstall or update the app and switch to its web version until further notice.
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