Since the crackdown against independent media in Russia began, many of the country’s journalists have flocked to YouTube. The platform quickly became a space rich with Russian-language news programs, podcasts and interview shows.
It wasn’t just traditional media.
Russian comedians, vloggers and politicians were also on YouTube, and their videos racked up millions of views. Perhaps the most popular Russian YouTuber is a journalist named Yury Dud. He interviews significant figures in the Russian-speaking world. Lately, at the top of each video, he shares this message: “Subscribe to our Telegram channel. While they’re blocking YouTube in Russia, this way, it will be easier for us to stay in touch.”
During his end-of-year marathon press conference in December, Russian President Vladimir Putin was asked about the YouTube slowdown and said, “In this case, there are more questions for YouTube than for us.”
Putin blamed YouTube for providing low-quality services in Russia due to sanctions and not following Russian law.
“They explicitly said that YouTube is to blame,” said Andrey Mima, a Russian information technology professional. “So, they wanted to create this notion that it’s not them blocking and censoring stuff, but it’s actually the YouTube itself that became not useable, and you should switch to the local platforms.”
Mima used to work for a major Russian social media company called VK. He left Russia in 2022 and is now based in Serbia. He said the Russian government tried to push content creators to post on Russian platforms like RuTube, VK and Yandex, but people still gravitate to YouTube.
“They were looking for the information there,” Mima said. “Some were watching independent media, others were just subscribers to some YouTubers, just bloggers, but those bloggers also spoke freely, but they don’t [speak] freely on the local platforms, because the video will be taken down quickly if they criticize the government.”
Many observers have wondered why the Russian government didn’t cut off access to YouTube years ago.
Andrei Soldatov is an expert on Russian security services and co-wrote “The Red Web,” a book about the Russian internet. He said the government is hesitant to shut down YouTube because of its widespread use in Russia.
“It’s also about kids, it’s about families,” Soldatov said. “They watch on YouTube lots of stuff which has nothing to do with politics, and the Kremlin — people in the Kremlin are not completely stupid.”
Soldatov said the Kremlin has shut down Facebook, Twitter and other social media apps with Russian equivalents. However, according to Soldatov, the Russian versions of YouTube are much worse, and many people would be up in arms if YouTube were to go.
So, over the last six months, the Kremlin has taken a gradual approach.
“It was very important for Vladimir Putin to isolate the country from the West,” Soldatov said. “He’s always seen the West as a big and existential threat. Not only militarily but also in terms of ideas and values. The internet, of course, is part of this fight.”
For Soldatov, Kremlin internet control isn’t just about slowing down YouTube. It’s a personal story in which his family has been the target of government repression. Soldatov’s 73-year-old father, Alexey, has been in a Russian prison since July.
“He was once dubbed as the father of the Russian internet because he had built [a] significant part of the internet infrastructure in the country,” Soldatov said. “He believed and believes the idea of the internet which should not be under government control, and well, apparently, that was not what the government wanted to hear from him.”
This isn’t just about his father’s case; other people are caught in a similar situation.
‘At some point, my father met in his prison cell, a guy who had started the only and biggest Russian company involved in producing supercomputers, and they met in prison,” Soldatov said. “Again, I think it was a signal and a message to the IT industry: Behave or else you will be in prison.”
These warning signs have worked to a degree. People in Russia are much more cautious on the internet. Many people have turned to virtual private networks to access blocked websites and apps, though the Kremlin has begun blocking VPNs.
“Walls are coming in, definitely. Because, unfortunately, some IT guys went to the dark side,” said Alexander Isavnin, an IT professional and an internet rights activist based in Moscow.
Isavnin said that many IT workers left Russia after the full-scale invasion began. Those who stayed were highly demanded; some are now building the Kremlin’s internet censorship infrastructure.
Isavnin said there is still some internet freedom in Russia, but the walls are closing in, and he worries that the backsliding will continue.
“I was a child, a young boy scout in [the] Soviet Union, I remember [those] times,” he said. “I definitely do not want to go back. People have seen a piece of freedom, and we don’t want to go back.”