The Kremlin has reportedly told Russian officials to throw away their iPhones by the end of the month

• Some Russian officials were told to ditch their iPhones, a Russian newspaper, Kommersant, reported.

• Officials close to the presidential administration were reportedly told to get new phones by April.

• The order comes amid data-security concerns ahead of Russia's presidential election, per Kommersant.

The Kremlin advised some Russian officials to ditch their Apple iPhones by the end of March because of information-security concerns, Kommersant reported.

The directive was announced during a seminar in the Moscow region earlier this month, according to the Russian newspaper, which cited sources present at the meeting.

Officials were told to replace their iPhones with phones built on other smartphone software, such as Android, Chinese counterparts, or Aurora, an operating system developed by the Russian company, Open Mobile Platform, the publication reported.

"It's all over for the iPhone: either throw it away or give it to the children," one person who attended the seminar told Kommersant, according to a Reuters translation of the quote.

Sergei Kiriyenko, the first deputy head of Russia's presidential administration, was said to have told officials to replace their iPhones by April 1.