Russia is in talks with Chinese tech giant Huawei on installing the Russian Aurora operating system (OS) on its tablets to conduct the country’s population census next year, sources told Reuters on Monday.
“This is a pilot project. We see it as the first stage of launching the Russian OS on Huawei devices,” a source told the news agency. According to him, Huawei is in talks with the Russian Ministry of Communications.
A representative of Huawei said that the project is considered to be the pilot stage of launching the Russian OS on Huawei devices. The company said in June it is looking for alternative operating systems for Google’s Android, after the United States blacklisted the smartphone manufacturer and banned it from working with American firms without a license.
The U.S. has additionally accused Huawei of fraud and trade theft, and is seeking the extradition of its chief financial officer, Meng Wanzhou, from Canada on allegations of violating sanctions on Iran.
Huawei has strongly denied the accusations and sought to portray the issue as retaliation for outpacing U.S. companies. There has also been ample speculation that the Trump administration is targeting Huawei as a strong-arming tactic amid the ongoing U.S.-China trade war.
Aurora (earlier called Sailfish) is Russia’s only OS and is not currently in circulation. It is in development by Russia’s state telecommunications operator Rostelecom and is based on a Linux kernel, but supports Android applications.
Amid U.S. pressure, Huawei revealed the Harmony OS mobile operating system, developed in-house as a possible replacement for Android. The company is also holding talks with a number of foreign companies and organizations to replace U.S.-produced software.
