Ex-russian here. This might be counter-intuitive to many people who never lived in Russia, but: mobile phone service contracts in Russia almost do not exist, e

Ex-russian here. This might be counter-intuitive to many people who never lived in Russia, but: mobile phone service contracts in Russia almost do not exist, entire market model for carriers is quite different. Carriers don't sell SIM-locked phones for over decade now in Russia. Most common contract features are implemented as pay-as-you-go with extra packs (quite similar to what giffgaff does in the UK). This is probably due to the fact that CRA and other similar financial institutions in Russia are currently in their earliest stages of development. Mobile phones are usually purchased absolutely independently from the mobile service contract, and almost never purchased from carriers: electronics stores usually offer better prices, and all Russian carriers are happy to sell SIM-only prepaid contracts (also see PAYG model notice above). So overall you should read this news as: "major russian mobile companies decided that long-term contract model required to sell 'cheap' iPhones in russia is still too risky and not feasible", no conspiracies.