Google will contest in court a ruling by the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) - the Russian antitrust agency - that it broke competition law by abusing its dominant position with its Android mobile platform. "We intend to challenge the decision in court and explain why we believe it to be unfounded," Google said on Tuesday.

Russia's competition watchdog ruled in September that Google had broken the law by requiring pre-installation of certain applications on mobile devices running on Android.

Google says existing device manufacturers are not required to install the Google applications with the platform Android. On the contrary, Google says that Yandex has agreements with several manufacturers to preinstall their applications on their devices.

Google also says that Android provides consumers many ways to install applications, including the ability to download and install applications from third-party sites and shops. Androd apps can co-exist with other "competing" apps in the same device, Google added.

Google has until Dec. 18 to amend its contracts with smartphone manufacturers in order to comply with the ruling in the case that was launched by local rival Yandex.

Yandex has also asked the European Commission to investigate Google practices in relation to Android in the European Union.