As Russia tightens its grip on information, one of the last remaining channels of independent content — YouTube — is becoming increasingly inaccessible to the country’s population. According to a Washington Post story, the tendency marks a significant shift for millions of Russians, including journalists, activists, and internet freedom advocates, who have long relied on the platform not only for entertainment but also as a crucial alternative to state-controlled media.
Starting in early August, Russian users began reporting that YouTube videos were taking unusually long to load or failing to stream in high resolution, especially on desktop browsers. By mid-August, many realized that YouTube was being intentionally restricted by state authorities, as part of a broader campaign to push Russians away from foreign social media platforms and onto domestically controlled alternatives, like RuTube. The Russian media regulator, Roskomnadzor, blamed the slowdown on Google’s withdrawal from the Russian market, but many see the move as part of a wider effort to suppress free speech.
For Dmitry Kolezev, a Russian journalist and YouTuber, the impact has been immediate. He noticed a 30 percent drop in viewership on his channel within weeks. “Channels that are pure entertainment and don’t cover politics report an even higher drop than the political ones,” he observed, noting that those who followed politically sensitive content seemed more adept at finding ways around the restrictions, such as using VPNs.
Roughly 95 million Russians, or 80 percent of the population, accessed the platform regularly, according to Mediascope, a media market research firm. Not only was YouTube the fourth most visited site in the country, but it also served as a major economic driver. Russian influencers, celebrities, and production companies invested millions into their channels, generating substantial revenue through ad placements. NetBlocks, a UK-based internet freedom watchdog, estimates that every day of YouTube being inaccessible costs the Russian economy over $23 million.
Yet, YouTube’s ability to operate for so long, in contrast to other Western platforms like Facebook and X, which were banned shortly after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, has puzzled some observers. The Kremlin’s tolerance, it seems, had a breaking point. Tensions between Google, YouTube’s parent company, and Russian authorities have been simmering for years. At the heart of the dispute is Google’s refusal to block channels associated with independent media and anti-Kremlin activists. In response, Russia slapped Google with a $100 million fine and seized its local assets, forcing its subsidiary into bankruptcy in 2022.
Despite Google’s pullback, YouTube and Gmail continued to operate in Russia, although many of the platform’s monetization features were disabled. For independent journalists and anti-corruption activists like those from the late Kremlin critic Aleksei Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation, which saw a 40 percent drop in revenue after YouTube turned off its ad services, this was a devastating blow. In open letters to Google, activists pleaded for the return of monetization to support independent voices fighting against Kremlin disinformation. One letter noted that for many Russians, YouTube was more than a platform — it was “a lifeline, supporting livelihoods and providing a vital source of information.”
Experts predict that the country will follow in the footsteps of other authoritarian regimes like Iran, where strict censorship dominates. Already, the Kremlin has begun implementing more advanced internet filtering systems, and VPNs, once a primary method for bypassing censorship, have been all but wiped out of app stores. Mikhail Klimarev, a telecom analyst, speculated that YouTube could soon face a full ban in Russia, with Telegram potentially next in line. As he warned, “If we trace the state’s logic so far, the next stop is Iran with YouTube and then Telegram blocked, too.”
