Google told Kommersant that problems with access to YouTube in Russia are not related to actions on the part of the company.
“We are aware of reports that some people are unable to access YouTube in Russia. This is not the result of any technical problems or actions on our part,” representatives of the corporation told the newspaper.
On the night of August 1, Russian users encountered problems with YouTube. By morning the number of messages had decreased, but they continued to arrive. Users complained about difficulties loading videos in both mobile and desktop versions. For most, the video hosting site opened, but the videos did not load — instead there was a black screen. Some videos loaded, but in minimum quality — 144p.
Vladimir Putin's press secretary Dmitry Peskov, commenting on the failures, said that YouTube «works normally» for him. Propagandist Margarita Simonyan wrote: «YouTube is kaput. Because it's not necessary.»
In early July, information security experts reported that YouTube was being artificially slowed down in Russia. Rostelecom said that the decrease in video loading speed was due to wear and tear on Google equipment.
On July 25, State Duma deputy Alexander Khinshtein announced a reduction in the speed of video uploads on YouTube to 70% by the beginning of August. At the time, he said that the artificial slowdown of the video hosting service was “a forced step aimed not against Russian users, but against the administration of a foreign resource, which still believes that it can violate andignore our legislation«.
The next day, Khinshtein already claimed that the decrease in video loading speed on YouTube would not occur due to an artificial slowdown in the video hosting service, but because the company itself had turned off some of its servers in the country and could not pay for the services of Russian data centers.