LONDON, April 4 (Reuters) - Russia's antitrust agency on

Thursday said it had written to Apple ( AAPL ), asking the U.S.

tech giant to explain why Russian users of Apple ( AAPL ) devices do not

have access to full functionality of banking and payment

services.

Apple ( AAPL ) did not immediately respond to a request for comment

outside U.S. business hours.

Russia's Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) has fined Apple ( AAPL )

around $26 million in the last two years related to what it

described as Apple's ( AAPL ) abuse of its dominant position concerning

the mobile apps market and in-app payments.

Apple ( AAPL ) has previously "respectfully disagreed" with a FAS

ruling that Apple's ( AAPL ) distribution of apps through its iOS

operating system gave its own products a competitive advantage.

The FAS said most Russian banks had been removed from the

App Store and that Apple ( AAPL ) was not letting users install apps from

anywhere but the App Store, making it impossible for Russian

banks and contactless services to function.

"The company's actions contain signs of violation of

antimonopoly legislation," the FAS said in a statement. "The

service sent a letter to the company about the need to submit a

detailed, motivated position on this issue to the agency."

Apple ( AAPL ) last month made a major concession in its battle to

protect the dominance of its App Store on iPhones and other

devices in Europe, saying developers would be free to distribute

their apps directly to consumers. The changes were made to

comply with the European Union's Digital Markets Act (DMA).