RETRACTED: YouTube blocks Alexey Navalny’s main channel ’Navalny Live’

Story retracted: After Meduza published this story, the Navalny Live YouTube channel started broadcasting again. Navalny’s team says it has received no warnings from Google that its channel will be blocked, though it remains unclear why the YouTube broadcast was initially inaccessible. Meduza apologizes for the confusion.

Alexey Navalny’s main YouTube channel, “Navalny Live,” was briefly blocked on Thursday, September 23.

Team Navalny head Ivan Zhdanov wrote on Twitter that the channel was experiencing problems, adding that he was streaming on Instagram instead.

Shortly afterward, Navalny’s spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh tweeted that the channel was back up and running.

Navalny’s chief of staff Leonid Volkov told Novaya Gazeta that his team is still looking into what happened. “It’s just some kind of glitch,” he maintained.

Earlier in the day on Thursday, a lawyer representing Navalny’s team reported that the Russian Attorney General’s office is seeking to block websites that redistribute content created the outlawed Anti-Corruption Foundation (the FBK). Russia’s federal censor (Roskomnadzor) has already blocked Alexey Navalny’s website and more than 40 other online resources associated with the FBK. 

Ahead of the 2021 State Duma elections, the Russian authorities demanded that Google and Apple remove Navalny’s mobile app from their App Stores, in an effort to restrict access to his team’s “Smart Vote” initiative. YouTube and Google Docs were also pressured to block access to web pages featuring lists of candidates endorsed by Smart Vote. In addition, Telegram temporarily blocked Smart Vote bots, citing Russia’s “election silence” during the voting process.