‘Either move to VK or find something else to do’ How the Russian authorities finally decided to crack down on YouTube
Over the past decade, YouTube has become a full-fledged alternative to television in Russia. After the start of the full-scale war in Ukraine, the platform also became a crucial tool for Russian opposition politicians and independent journalists to connect with their domestic audiences. But it wasn’t until 2024 that Russian authorities began taking steps to restrict access to the site. Initially, the service was slowed on home Internet connections during the summer, and by mid-December, it was almost entirely blocked on mobile devices, as well. Meduza explores how Moscow finally decided to restrict access to YouTube, what further actions the Kremlin might take to undermine the platform, and how the restrictions could affect the revenue of Russian bloggers — including those aligned with the government.
On the evening of November 15, Russia’s oldest domestic video sharing site, Rutube, celebrated its 18th anniversary at the trendy Moscow venue Loft Hall. The event, aptly titled “Reset,” featured a cocktail reception, a buffet, and appearances by celebrity guests. Rutube, which is owned by Gazprom-Media, invited several hundred prominent bloggers to the celebration, where they were introduced to the platform’s new monetization system and upcoming original shows. Alexey Kashtanov, the head of Rutube’s advertising division, spoke at the event, describing how content from “other top platforms” could be transferred to Rutube — particularly from platforms “slowed down in Russia, which we are replacing,” he said.
However, according to one guest, the main topic of conversation wasn’t Rutube itself but recent remarks by Karen Shakhnazarov, the director and CEO of Mosfilm. Just a day earlier, Shakhnazarov had disclosed on live television that he had personally complained to Vladimir Putin about the YouTube slowdown that had begun in Russia in July. In response, Putin reportedly promised to “look into” the matter.
After Shakhnazarov’s comments, journalists and Telegram bloggers quickly checked YouTube’s functionality. After noticing minor improvements, several outlets, including Meduza, reported that the platform appeared to be working normally. At the party, some joked that Rutube’s “reset” theme might already be out of date.
Nevertheless, it soon became clear that YouTube’s throttling was far from over. In the days that followed, access remained unreliable, and the platform continued to work only intermittently. On December 19, during his annual marathon press conference, Putin addressed the issue, stating that complaints against YouTube were justified since its parent company, Google, was not complying with Russian law.
According to one blogger with ties to the president’s administration, no one expects YouTube to start working again anytime soon: “Too much money has already been invested in alternative platforms.”
‘Brought to its senses’
Russian authorities first began throttling YouTube in mid-July. Within two weeks, complaints about outages and technical issues with the platform — particularly on home Internet connections — had become widespread. While rumors had circulated for years that the Kremlin might block YouTube, the sudden slowdown took both users and market players by surprise.
Telecom operators were notified about the impending YouTube disruptions roughly 36 hours before the “start of this special operation,” a telecom company employee told Meduza. According to this person, employees of Roskomnadzor, Russia’s federal censorship agency, informed the operators during informal conversations — “just in case [they] accidentally hit something else while implementing the block.” The source explained that Roskomnadzor’s censorship efforts sometimes have unintended consequences. “When Roskomnadzor targets something specific, some unexpected things, like online stores, tend to get caught in the crossfire,” they said. “Once, they accidentally got VKontakte, causing major traffic issues.”
The telecom worker said no clear reason was given for why the authorities chose to throttle YouTube at this particular moment. “It’s not like VK Video or Rutube had grown enough to replace it entirely. And there wasn’t any particularly significant political video on YouTube that would have triggered this,” the source said.
The first person to offer a public explanation was State Duma deputy Alexander Khinshtein (named the acting governor of Russia’s embattled Kursk region in early December):
It’s no coincidence that the summer period was chosen for “bringing YouTube to its senses,” when most people are on vacation and use mobile devices to access the Internet. The degradation of YouTube won’t affect them directly, but the platform will clearly see that the government has moved from attempts at persuasion to concrete actions.
Responsibility for preparing users for the impending “breakdown” of YouTube in Russia — and for laying blame — appears to have been assigned to Rostelecom, Russia’s largest home Internet provider. On July 12, just before the throttling began, Rostelecom issued a brief statement warning that YouTube’s buffering speed and video quality might soon decline. The company directly accused YouTube’s owner, Google, of causing the issue, citing the company’s decision to stop updating its caching equipment for speeding up video downloads within Russia after the start of the full-scale war. While technical experts were quick to cast doubt on this explanation, Rostelecom continues to stand by it.
According to Kommersant, by mid-August, about a month after the throttling began, customers of around 135 regional telecom companies had begun canceling their service contracts en masse. “Users blame the companies for YouTube not working on their home Internet. On mobile networks, everything is still working, so users assume their home provider is at fault and terminate their contracts,” the newspaper reported. “The negative sentiment towards the operators is reflected in thousands of complaints,” said Oleg Grishchenko, president of the telecom operators’ trade association Rosteleseti.
Initially, the throttling affected only home Internet, but in mid-December, YouTube became almost entirely inaccessible on mobile devices as well. “YouTube is a revenue driver. Many mobile customers specifically choose plans with unlimited YouTube,” a source at a major telecom company said. When the platform slowed or stopped working altogether, he added, many customers simply canceled their subscriptions. “This is a serious issue for us,” the source admitted. “We’re already running economic models to calculate our losses for the coming year, and they show we’re on track to lose billions [of rubles].”
After the slowdown began, customer service inquiries rose 300–400 percent in August, then as much as 800 percent in December, up to 40,000 complaints a day. “We tweaked our automated response system so that it now says something like, ‘If YouTube has stopped working for you, it’s not the telecom operator’s fault — sorry.’ Some of our customers drop off at that point,” one industry employee said.
‘A hostile platform’
The Putin administration began exploring ways to limit YouTube’s operations in Russia as early as late 2023, according to sources at VK. At the time, YouTube was one of the primary platforms for independent journalists and bloggers, frequently drawing sharp criticism from the Russian authorities.
“YouTube remains a hostile platform, deliberately violating our country’s laws. There’s no guarantee it won’t adopt an even more aggressive stance on spreading illegal content tomorrow,” argued Anton Gorelkin, deputy head of the State Duma’s Information Policy Committee, at the time. Still, he acknowledged that blocking YouTube outright could “do more harm than good” and called for prioritizing the development of domestic alternatives.
“People from our team regularly attended meetings, both at the Kremlin and at Roskomnadzor, in which officials discussed the possibility of blocking YouTube,” a VK employee told Meduza. “These meetings happened almost weekly. Sometimes our top management participated; other times, our government relations team went. It was routine, like going to work,” the VK employee said.
“Among other things, they spoke about [original] content: where to get it and how to increase its volume,” another source from the company said. “And [the VK representatives] were constantly asking for things. [They discussed] what the company wanted to get and what it needed from the Kremlin so that Russia could finally get its own ‘sovereign YouTube.’ The question of additional investments came up as well: ‘Without them, we can’t do anything.’”
However, the throttling of YouTube in August caught VK “completely off guard,” according to a source familiar with the company’s plans. As a result, VK and Rutube “became hyperactive,” buying more content, actively negotiating with bloggers, and “launching all kinds of kids’ features,” explained the source at the company.
In addition to VK representatives, the meetings with the Putin administration also included figures from other potential YouTube alternatives, such as Margarita Simonyan, head of RT, and representatives of Rutube, a former VK employee said. Simonyan, according to the source, said at the meetings that “everything was ready on their end, the infrastructure was in place, and they were building Platforma.”
In early June 2024, shortly before the YouTube throttling began, a new Russian video hosting service called Platforma was indeed presented at a press conference at a conference hall operated by the state media agency TASS. A promotional video highlighted its YouTube-like interface, designed to make the transition seamless for users. A voiceover noted that Platforma would “of course have its own system for blocking harmful content.”
Platforma was developed by a group called Rteam, described by TASS as a “Russian IT company” and “developer of software solutions.” State media did not disclose its ownership, but it wasn’t hard to uncover: the legal entity behind Platforma was registered in March 2022 by ANO TV-Novosti, the parent company of RT. (Simonyan didn’t respond to questions about the project.)
Currently, one of the most active channels on Platforma — which indeed closely resembles YouTube — is called MMM2.0. With just 25 subscribers, its homepage features a photo of Sergey Mavrodi, founder of the notorious MMM pyramid scheme that defrauded millions in the 1990s, accompanied by a disclaimer: “Warning! Financial pyramids are hazardous to your health!” The channel hosts roughly 300 videos with sensational titles like “Who Robbed MMM?” and “Killers Feared Mavrodi.” The most-watched video has garnered a mere 118 views as of this writing.
Efforts to create YouTube alternatives in Russia are ongoing, with regular Kremlin-led meetings addressing the topic, according to two sources close to VK. These discussions reportedly center on VK’s video platform, though broader questions about the future of the Runet are also addressed. VK representatives frequently outline the challenges they’re facing and continue to request government support, a source close to the company said.
Overseeing these efforts is Sergey Kiriyenko, deputy head of the presidential administration responsible for domestic policy and the Runet. His son, Vladimir Kiriyenko, has served as CEO of VK since 2021. Unsurprisingly, VK has emerged as the Kremlin’s top contender among the platforms vying to replace YouTube.
Loopholes and workarounds
On the day the authorities began throttling YouTube, “Russian moms heard wails echoing through their homes,” a streaming service employee recalled. Children who were used to watching cartoons on their computers suddenly found that “nothing was loading or playing.” Mothers “rushed to online cinemas in search of the same cartoons,” leading to a surge in traffic and new subscriptions for streaming platforms.
In the long term, however, these platforms didn’t benefit from the shift. Instead, they suffered losses because YouTube had been one of their key marketing channels, the source explained. “If given the choice between a fully functioning YouTube or a share of kids’ traffic, we’d choose a functioning YouTube every time,” he said.
As of July 2024, shortly before the throttling began, YouTube had an average monthly audience of nearly 96 million users in Russia, according to data from Mediascope. More than 55 million Russians, or 46 percent of the population aged 12 and older, used the platform daily. Television officially maintained a broader reach, with 63 percent of Russians tuning in at least once a day, but this figure included viewers as young as four.
Since the throttling began, Google has reported a substantial drop in YouTube traffic in Russia. By late August, traffic had fallen nearly 40 percent and remained at that level for over four months. A new wave of restrictions in mid-December caused an even sharper decline, leaving YouTube’s traffic about 50 percent lower than it had been in July. Popular Russian bloggers have complained about losing audiences rapidly, blaming both the restrictions and YouTube itself, which appears to have deprioritized Russian creators in its recommendation algorithms after their views decreased due to the authorities’ slowdown.
Yaroslav Gorodetsky, CEO of CDN Video, reported that YouTube traffic dropped by half within a month of the throttling. He noted that it was redistributed across several platforms: 39 percent went to VK Video, 17 percent to Yandex, and eight percent each to Rutube and Ivi, with six percent going to Okko. “The rest [of the former YouTube users] are waiting for someone to offer a good service with content they care about,” Gorodetsky added.
Russian Digital Development Minister Maksut Shadayev announced in mid-December that roughly half of the lost YouTube traffic had “landed” on Russian platforms. “We need an alternative, and we see contenders stepping forward. This is happening quite quickly,” he told TASS.
Despite this, popular shows and bloggers continue to prioritize YouTube or, at the very least, publish their content on both YouTube and alternative platforms. For instance, Vlad Bumaga, creator of the most-subscribed Russian-language YouTube channel (72 million subscribers), still posts videos on YouTube despite an exclusive content deal with VK. While Bumaga releases his “exclusive” videos on VK first, they appear on YouTube just three days later.
Even the Russian comedy channel Labelcom, run by Medium Quality Production, which VK acquired, has resumed uploading its shows to YouTube, albeit with a delay. Initially, after transitioning to VK, Labelcom deleted all its content from the U.S.-based platform.
Market participants worry that Russian authorities may escalate restrictions by banning advertising on YouTube entirely, potentially forcing bloggers off the platform.
YouTube halted ad monetization in Russia in March 2022, shortly after the war began, but bloggers were still able to run ads through direct sponsorships. According to Roskomnadzor’s online advertising registry, Russian advertisers spent 3.3 billion rubles ($31.2 million) on YouTube integrations in 2023. The Association of Bloggers and Agencies (ABA) and eLama platform estimated that influencer marketing in Russia would reach 42.5 billion rubles ($401.9 million) in 2024, with YouTube accounting for nearly half of all advertising on bloggers’ channels. However, these forecasts were made before the throttling began.
In March 2024, bloggers designated as “foreign agents” lost access to ad revenue due to new laws prohibiting them from running ads on their channels. In the future, sources familiar with the situation believe that ads on YouTube will be banned for all users, regardless of their political stance.
“I’ve even heard talk of a possible ad ban on YouTube from officials — those directly involved in the process,” said the owner of a Russian talent agency. According to him, industry representatives have lobbied against a proposed law banning ads on blocked platforms like Facebook and Instagram. “The conversations went like this: ‘We’ll ban ads on prohibited sites. That’s the law.’ When we asked which sites were prohibited, they mentioned YouTube. And when reminded that YouTube isn’t banned yet, the response was, ‘Well, it will be.’”
“Ads are my only source of income,” said the host of a popular YouTube show. “A single episode can earn up to a million rubles ($9,500) on a good day. That money pays for the team and covers all production costs. Even before the war, monetization was just a nice bonus.”
“Banning ads on YouTube would devastate my business,” the talent agency owner added. “If this happens, major advertisers will leave, and bloggers will go broke. Those unwilling to face bankruptcy will have no choice but to migrate to Russian platforms.”
As for the RT-linked Platforma, the bloggers interviewed for this story had never heard of it. Creators described Rutube, meanwhile, with phrases like “eye-bleedingly bad.” “I’m not ready to spend 100 hours uploading a single video [to Rutube],” one prominent blogger joked. Another YouTuber called it “a swamp.” VK Video remains the only alternative seen as viable by content creators.
‘The money ran out’
In 2023, VK was paying artists up to half a billion rubles ($4.7 million) to host their shows on its video platform. Now, the landscape has shifted: not only has VK stopped compensating bloggers for transitioning to its platform, but it’s also begun reneging on contracts with those it had previously promised payments.
“VK was willing to spend billions on content as long as the money lasted. The problem is that the money ran out,” a former company employee explained. Two prominent YouTubers confirmed that their major exclusive contracts with VK Video had been terminated.
For three episodes of a show called What Happened Next?, which aired on VK, the company reportedly paid 500 million rubles, according to a source familiar with the project’s team. The first release reached an improbable 127 million views, while the other two garnered around 89 million each. For comparison, the show’s most popular episode, released in 2020, amassed only 27 million views in eight months of that year.
The latest episode, released at the end of September, vanished from VK within days. The show’s team explained in a post that “unfortunately, the episode was removed at the platform’s initiative.” “They just took it down without any explanation,” said a source close to the team. Earlier, in March, VK Video had declined to renew its contract with the show. “The team completed three episodes and left in March. They weren’t interested in an extension under VK’s terms, and they weren’t offered the same deal as before [500 million rubles for three episodes],” said the source.
“Right now, the company doesn’t need shows like this, since there are over 3,000 pieces of exclusive content on the platform, and daily views have reached 2.9 million,” a VK source said. In November, he noted, VK was the second most popular video platform in Russia, according to Mediascope, behind only YouTube, which had 46.2 million daily users compared to VK’s 38.1 million.
Despite these metrics, VK began mass layoffs in the fall. Hundreds of employees have already been let go, with thousands potentially affected, according to current and former staff who spoke with the authors of this story. VK has officially denied the layoffs, prompting sharp criticism on social media.
“Nothing is announced officially; everything is done quietly to avoid raising suspicion,” said a recently laid-off employee. “Formally, it’s not called layoffs — everything is done ‘by mutual agreement.’ HR frames it as a shift in company priorities, with attention now focused on other products.” The team wasn’t told what these products were, but they understood it to mean VK Video, the source said.
The main reason for the layoffs is financial strain. In 2023, VK’s parent company posted a net loss of 34.3 billion rubles ($324.3 million), making it the fifth most unprofitable company in Russia. Losses mounted due to escalating costs in marketing, personnel, and content production partnerships.
Meanwhile, the Putin administration is exploring ways to not only position VK Video as a replacement for YouTube but also to improve the platform’s financial performance. Officials have reportedly suggested adopting strategies used by Chinese companies to boost traffic and advertising revenue, according to a source familiar with VK’s plans.
Among these strategies is the introduction of live commerce, two company sources revealed. “It’ll be like in China: businesses will host live streams to review and sell products,” they explained. While Chinese influencers generate millions of dollars through live broadcasts, the practice remains rare in Russia. VK Video, however, faces pressure to drive traffic and ad revenue through any means possible. “The market lacks inventory, so we need to create it,” a source noted.
With the fast-growing e-commerce market largely bypassing VK’s platforms, live commerce is seen as an opportunity to claim a share. The company plans to host live streams for various brands and even online marketplaces, according to another source familiar with the plans.
‘No major player will work in the gray market’
The potential blocking of YouTube in Russia aligns perfectly with VK's new business strategy, a source in the advertising market explained. This strategy is laid out in presentations that VK employees routinely deliver to the Putin administration, the source said. These presentations reportedly outline key objectives such as import substitution, growth plans for VK Video, and steps necessary to develop “a sovereign service” for the country.
The authorities have a straightforward approach to dealing with bloggers, according to the producer of a YouTube entertainment show that used to garner millions of views. “[They say,] ‘We’re cutting off the ads — you can either move to VK, or you find something else to do,’” he explains. For now, however, popular bloggers in Russia who haven’t yet been banned continue to feature up to four ad integrations per YouTube episode, and optimists hope that even if ads are “turned off,” they’ll still find loopholes.
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They point to Instagram as an example. Although the Russian authorities blocked the platform shortly after the war began, bloggers have found ways to sell ads for Russian products there. The arrangement typically involves inflating prices for placements on legal social networks, with the extra money covertly covering Instagram posts, explained a source in the advertising market. “Advertisers pay more for placements on platforms like VK, with an unspoken agreement that the campaign will also include Instagram posts — even though those aren’t mentioned in the contract,” the source said.
A well-known YouTube blogger confirmed the practice. “Clients technically buy an integration on VK, but the price is several times higher because it includes the Instagram post,” the blogger said. As a result, the ads appear on both platforms.
Both sources hope that any potential ad ban on YouTube will be evadable in the same way. But if advertising on blocked platforms is legally prohibited, no schemes will help, an employee at a Moscow PR agency said: “There will probably be no statute of limitations on such laws, so the client risks a lot if Instagram posts are found, even old ones.”
“No major player will work in the ‘gray market,’” another source in the advertising market said.
“To put it bluntly, why would a bank risk buying ads ‘under the table’ on a banned platform? These are huge risks. We’re used to working with institutional advertisers — and that won’t change,” he concluded.
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