Adhering to government sanctions issued by the United States and European Commission in December, TechCrunch reports that Apple has started emailing notice of termination letters to registered developers in the Crimea region of Ukraine. Effective immediately, developers in the region cannot create or publish apps on the App Store and will be unable to access the developer portal, according to the reports.
The decision follows an ongoing dispute between the United States and Russia over the Russian occupation of Crimea, an area that is internationally recognized as Ukraine territory. If and when the sanctions are lifted, developers in Crimea would presumably regain access to the developer portal and the ability to publish apps.
The full-text letter from Russian-language website Habrahabr and Twitter:
Apple may terminate your status as a Registered Apple Developer at any time at its sole discretion under the RAD Agreement. The new sanctions on the Crimea Region announced by the US Government on December 19, 2014 and announced by the European Commission on December 18, 2014 prohibit the continuation of the RAD Agreement between you and Apple. For more information, please review Executive Order 13685 and the European Commission notice.
We would like to remind you of your obligations with regard to all software and other confidential information that you obtained from Apple as a Registered Apple Developer. You must promptly cease all use of and destroy such materials and comply with all the other termination obligations set forth in the RAD Agreement.
Sincerely, Apple Inc.
