RIM BlackBerry to be Available Russia

BlackBery has been finally launched in Russia, and will be available in Q1 2008 from MTS and Vimpelcom.

It has recently been approved by the FSB (former KGB) for a one year term. However, the process of approval was ongoing and took several years. FSB required RIM to provide the codes used to encrypt traffic and did not allow launching the BlackBerry in Russia until both sides have found a compromise.

Now Vimpelcom plans to ship 1,050 of the BlackBerry 8700’s but they still must be certified by Russian regulators before shipping.