For years, Russian tech regulators have gnashed their teeth at the reach of YouTube, the video platform that is a major source of largely uncensored news, information, and entertainment -- not to mention a major source of income for many Russian influencers and bloggers.
Authorities have throttled the Google-owned platform, trying to frustrate Russian viewers by slowing it to unbearable speeds. They’ve threatened the Silicon Valley giant to get it to house its servers inside Russia, so regulators can better monitor its traffic.
They’ve also tried to cultivate homegrown alternatives that would be under the thumb of regulators.
How’s it going?
They’re not there yet, experts say, but it’s coming soon.
Years in the making, the effort is part of the wider Kremlin-backed campaign to build Russia’s own “managed” Internet – where Russians are essentially given constrained choice, the illusion of unfettered information, and monitored closely for infractions.
This past week, Russian officials signaled they were moving toward blocking WhatsApp, the Meta-owned messaging app that is widely used for news and communication.
“YouTube is massive in Russia,” said Philipp Dietrich, a researcher and expert on Russia’s Internet at the German Council on Foreign Relations.
“It is a major threat to the government,” he said in an interview. “That's 100 percent and for sure, if you manage to have a platform on which you can control which videos go online and which videos don't, that’s obviously majorly beneficial.”
‘They’re The Main Player’
Millions of Russians watch video streaming services. YouTube is by far the most popular, a trend that continued upward after Russia’s all-out invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Prior to his death, the anti-corruption crusader Aleksei Navalny released his biting investigations and commentary on YouTube, garnering tens of millions of views inside Russia alone. More than 10 million people in and out of Russia subscribe to Yury Dud’s YouTube channel and his edgy, fast-paced interviews.
According to market research from Mediascope, 95.9 million Russian teenagers and adults visited YouTube monthly in the last half of 2024. That number slipped in the first half of 2025, however, after regulators started slowing the service down.
At least five video streaming projects have emerged in the Russian Internet – known widely as the RuNet – as potential challengers to YouTube.
VK Video, a streaming service built by VK, Russia’s equivalent to Facebook, trails in viewership, but has steadily increased its audience.
Other platforms include Gazprom-owned Rutube; Zen, which spun off of Yandex in 2022; and Video OK, another Facebook-like social media platform also owned by VK.
The parent company of the state-owned TV network previously known as Russia Today invested in a streaming service called Platform, launching it in June 2024. By all metrics, it’s been a flop, with just daily viewership in the tens of thousands.
The most popular content on Platform is pirated content, according to Systema, RFE/RL’s Russian investigative service. Last month, Platform’s developers announced a “reboot” of the service.
“It’s an obvious attempt to create a service ‘as a business’ on the basis of blocking the main competitor: YouTube,” said Mikhail Klimarev, a Russian blogger and Director of the Society for the Defense of the Internet, an advocacy group.
“And it is obvious that the money is being taken from the [state] budget, not from private investors. It’s just run-of-the-mill theft.”
For the moment, VK Video is the most viable alternative for YouTube, Dietrich said-- and likely will eventually replace it entirely.
“I think the only real big alternative is VK Video. I think that's the main player. They have the money. They’re government-backed. They’re going to go all-in here,” he said.
“They have the servers, the infrastructure, they have good software, they have good engineers, if money doesn’t get into corruption, if it actually goes where it’s supposed to go, VK is going to be a success.”
The government backing comes in the form of VK’s controlling shareholders, and its senior executives.
SOGAZ, the insurance company controlled by Putin confidante Yuri Kovalchuk, is one of the major shareholders, along with Gazprom Media, which is the media arm of state-owned natural gas giant Gazprom. Gazprom Media also owns Rutube, which is frequently used by the Kremlin to release official videos.
VK’s chief executive is Vladimir Kiriyenko, whose father is the Kremlin domestic policy chief. Kovalchuk’s great nephew, Stepan, has been a vice president at VK, helping develop VK Video, among other things.
For now, the biggest problem with VK Video is its credibility with audience numbers, Dietrich said: there’s no real way to gauge if its “engagement numbers” – clicks, likes, shares, time spent viewing – are real or contrived.
Another Brick In The Firewall
Russian authorities' efforts to tighten their grip on the Internet date as far back as the late 1990s, with the development of the System for Operative Search Activities - essentially a surveillance tool for the Internet.
Over the years, authorities have passed a series of laws, increasing oversight of Internet companies, and expanding the oversight powers of regulatory agency Roskomnadzor. They’ve consolidated control of the leading homegrown tech giants – Yandex, VK, Mail.ru, Wildberries – under Kremlin-friendly ownership.
They’ve criminalized the use of virtual private networks (VPNs) which allow people to read or view or download content without drawing authorities’ attention.
Lawmakers are even trying to criminalize searching for VPNs.
At a televised Kremlin meeting in March, President Vladimir Putin demanded that officials choke off foreign tech companies like Microsoft and Zoom.
"You just have to strangle them. I agree completely," Putin said.
“I do think that they are moving towards a China model, not the North Korean model,” Dietrich said. “Like, people think there's going to be a complete cut-off. That's just not possible. That would nuke the economy.”
In addition to nudging Russians away from YouTube, authorities have also pushed toward creation of a “super app” – that would allow Russians to do a multitude of things: chat, bank, date, hail a taxi, pay taxes, download music, play games, order food, share photos.
Developed by VK, the app, called Max, got a test run in March. Last month, Putin said that all government services should be transferred to Max.
“What you essentially need to do as a government is you need to come up with ideas: how do we get people to use this thing without just openly mandating it,” Dietrich said. “The way you do this is you make this ecosystem completely indispensable.”
“With this app, you can literally do everything,” he said.
Authorities have also made no secret that they will try to push people off of popular messaging apps; the Russian-built Telegram or WhatsApp, which is currently the most popular messenger in Russia, according to Mediascope.
"Forcing [Russians] to immigrate from convenient and familiar platforms that they have used for decades and trust to the absolutely unsafe Max is a difficult task,” Sarkis Darbinyan, a prominent Russian Internet activist, told Current Time.
“Therefore, it seems to me that the same scenario awaits us here as with YouTube. The crazy surge in popularity of VK Video began around the same time as they began blocking YouTube, which the Russian authorities still do not admit to," he said.
