
Yulia Navalnaya attends an anti-war demonstration in Berlin, Germany, 17 November. Photo: EPA-EFE/FILIP SINGER
Russian opposition politician Yulia Navalnaya has called on Google to help YouTube users in Russia bypass restrictions to the platform in the country, independent news outlet Meduza reported on Friday.
“Your tens of millions of users in Russia are not just a number …. They are real people, for many of whom your platform has become their sole window to the free world, their sole access to information and support. These users have placed their trust in you, and you can and must fight for them,” Navalnaya said.
Writing on Telegram, Navalnaya expressed cautious optimism, however, while acknowledging that the Russian authorities were in a position to block the service. She recalled that in 2018, when Russia attempted to block news and messenger service Telegram, its team built mechanisms to bypass the blocks into the app, and censors were eventually forced to admit defeat.
Navalnaya also cited the messenger service Signal, which is still available to users in Russia despite the authorities’ decision to ban it, after developers created workarounds to bypass blocks. Navalnaya urged those who live in Russia to use VPNs and help “less technically savvy relatives and acquaintances” install them.
YouTube has faced restrictions in Russia since this summer. Alexander Khinshtein, the newly appointed Kursk region governor and rising political star, said in July that the download speed of YouTube on desktop computers could drop by up to 70% if the company didn’t start complying with Russian laws. However, the very next day he blamed YouTube itself for the drop in its speed.
Vladimir Putin also blamed Google for YouTube’s technical problems in Russia during his Direct Line annual phone-in show on Thursday, echoing Khinshtein’s sentiment that the company should comply with Russian laws. Russian YouTube users began complaining about problems accessing the service on mobile devices soon after.
For its part, Google had always denied suggestions from the Russian authorities that the company has failed to maintain infrastructure since exiting Russia in 2022 following the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.