MOSCOW, December 6 (RIA Novosti) – Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, a well-known Apple fan, appeared on television Friday with Russia’s first smartphone and some advice on calls for US President Barack Obama.
Medvedev told reporters during an interview that he had not abandoned his iPhone but would now also use a YotaPhone, the world’s first twin-screened phone.
“Of course, I haven’t thrown out my iPhone. You know, I love a variety of technology,” he said. “But we have got this device. Maybe it doesn’t yet measure up to other devices of this type…but it has its advantages because it has two screens.”
Medvedev became Russia’s first iPhone 4 owner when he was given one by Steve Jobs, Apple’s late CEO, during a visit to the United States in 2010.
The YotaPhone was launched in Russia this week and features a full-color LCD screen on one side and a black-and-white electronic paper display on the other.
“We hope that it [YotaPhone] will be better protected from these [spying] activities than the iPhone or other devices,” Medvedev told the interviewers in response to a question of whether he feared his phone could be tapped by foreign spy services.
Medvedev said that he never discussed “serious state issues” by phone and only talks about ordinary things.
“I think this is absolutely normal,” he said, adding that Obama, who recently disclosed that he was not allowed to have an iPhone for “security reasons”, should not be afraid of using a phone.
His advice came amid an international scandal over the extent of eavesdropping by America’s National Security Agency on telephone and internet communications, disclosed in classified documents released by the US intelligence leaker Edward Snowden, who has been given temporary asylum in Russia.
The Android-based YotaPhone developed by Yota is Russia’s first entrant in the global contest for smartphone customers. It is on sale in Russia for 19,900 rubles ($600) and in Austria, France, Spain and Germany for about $680.
The US government is collecting nearly 5 billion records per day on the location of cell phones throughout the world in a massive effort to track individuals’ movements, the Washington Post reported, citing documents disclosed by Snowden.
