Huawei is reportedly in talks with Russia to help install the operating system, Aurora OS, on its tablets. The 360,000 tablets are expected to be used in conducting Russia’s 2020 population census.

The Chinese tech company recently revealed its own backup operating system as an alternative to Google’s Android OS. This followed America’s threats to cut off Huawei from trading with US technology companies.

However, Russia, which is clearly not a US ally, is now looking to work with Huawei. A source told Reuters that it is a pilot project. “We see it as the first stage of launching the Russian OS on Huawei devices,” the source was quoted as saying. Apparently, Huawei is now in talks with the Russian Ministry of Communications on the installation project.

Huawei also recently admitted that the US trade restrictions could affect its smartphone revenue. It explained that this loss could run into $10 billion (₦3.62 trillion) for the year. Consequently, Huawei has now shown Russia samples of the tablets that could be used for the project.

Huawei is looking to incorporate its OS in some of its new devices. However, it could mean they would lose important Google Android Apps. Harmony OS will be Huawei’s substitute for Android OS.

Russia’s telecommunication operator, Rostelecom, is the owner of Aurora. It is also the sole contractor for buying the tablets that will be used for the Russia population census. At the last census, Russia had a population of 147 million people.

Russia clearly has no problem working with the Chinese tech giant, Huawei. This is especially as the country is not in solidarity with America. Russia has been through the same spying accusations. They were under attack after speculations that they spied on America’s last elections.