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Censorship Monitor · Russia Last test

Is YouTube banned in Russia?

Not officially. Russia hasn’t formally banned YouTube, but it has deliberately slowed it since 2024 and dropped it from the national DNS in February 2026, so it often fails without a VPN.

Today’s test · www.youtube.com

Blocked

www.youtube.com fails to open on Rostelecom and MTS, twice, while it opens from other countries.

Last confirmed
Seen in our tests since
1 Oct 2026 (may be older)
How it fails
The secure connection stalls
Tested on
Rostelecom and MTS
Test YouTube yourself › Everything we test in Russia

The official status

YouTube in Russia

YouTube slowed sharply in Russia in July 2024. Officials first blamed Google’s ageing equipment, but lawmaker Alexander Khinshtein said the slowdown was because YouTube doesn’t comply with Russian law, and that desktop speeds would fall by up to 70%. By the end of 2024 it was almost impossible to use without workarounds.

On 10 February 2026 youtube.com disappeared from Russia’s national DNS, the state-run name lookup system internet providers have to use. Since then courts in Moscow and St Petersburg have fined providers for letting users reach YouTube around the state’s filtering equipment.

No formal block order has been announced, so access still varies from one connection to another.

What our daily test shows

Because the slowdown isn’t applied evenly, a test machine can load YouTube while others on the same network stall. Our result reads “blocked” when the networks we test stall on it; machines caught getting around blocks don’t count, and “unstable” would mean one network stalls while the other loads it.

What people use instead

Rutube and VK Video, the Russian video platforms the authorities promote as alternatives.

Get past a block

How to use YouTube in Russia

A VPN connects you through a server in another country, so a block on YouTube in Russia no longer applies. Where VPNs themselves are blocked, you need one that can disguise its traffic, and you should set it up before you travel.

Using a VPN isn’t illegal in Russia, but VPN providers that won’t cooperate with the government are blocked.

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Around the world

Where else is YouTube blocked?

YouTube is also blocked in 2 other countries we test.

It opens in 21 of the 23 other countries with a current result.

YouTube in every country we test ›

Russia

What else is blocked in Russia?

31 of the other 66 sites and apps we test are blocked in Russia.

All 67 results for Russia ›

History

Changes for YouTube in Russia

No confirmed changes since monitoring began on 29 Sep 2026. When a block appears or lifts, and a re-check on several machines agrees, it shows up here.

Method

How we test

  • Every day, test machines on Rostelecom and MTS home connections open www.youtube.com.
  • A failure counts only when it happens twice on the same network, while the site opens from other countries.
  • A change is published only after re-checks a few hours later and again the next day, on several machines per provider, confirm it. It’s dated from the first sighting.
  • Test machines caught getting around blocks, through a VPN or a filter-dodging tool, are set aside.
  • We test the website over home broadband. The app, calls and mobile networks can behave differently.

Full method ›

Questions

YouTube in Russia: questions

Does YouTube Work in Russia?

Barely. Russia has deliberately slowed YouTube since 2024 and dropped it from the national DNS in February 2026, so it often fails without a VPN, though it still loads on some connections.

Why Is YouTube Slow in Russia?

Officials first blamed Google’s ageing equipment. In July 2024 lawmaker Alexander Khinshtein said the slowdown was because YouTube doesn’t comply with Russian law.

Can Internet Providers in Russia Be Fined Over YouTube?

Yes. Since early 2026 courts in Moscow and St Petersburg have fined providers for letting users reach YouTube around the state’s filtering equipment.

Free to use

Cite this result

Quote or republish today’s result with a link to this page: the monitor’s data is under a Creative Commons Attribution licence (CC BY 4.0).

Source: vpnAlert Censorship Monitor, https://vpnalert.com/tools/censorship-monitor/russia/youtube/

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