“Slowing down YouTube, in my opinion, does not make sense today,” Mr. Shakhnazarov said on Russian television, confirming that he had discussed it with Vladimir Putin. “He listened to me and he said: 'I'll take care of it, I'll look,'” he added.
In the evening, Russian media reported that YouTube was working normally again. According to the Internet censorship monitoring service GlobalCheck, the site is fully accessible from all the largest Russian internet providers.
Russian power has greatly increased its control over the internet since the start of the conflict in Ukraine in 2022, banning a number of Western sites and social networks in which its detractors could express themselves freely, such as Facebook, Instagram and X .
At the beginning of October, the authorities also banned the discussion platform Discord.
However, these resources remain accessible from Russia using a VPN, a means of circumvention which is also in the sights of the authorities.
