Commentary, unless otherwise noted, is from Yevgeniy Prigozhin, proprietor of Wagner Military Company
I should note that some Russian mercenary accounts do exist on Youtube still. I subscribe to two, albeit one of them was taken down for a short while.
[ColonelCassad] “YouTube was not closed for the same reason that the children of a large part of the elite did not go to war. YouTube is needed by those who are trying to balance between the liberal and around-liberal parts of the population. They believe that YouTube is one of the ways to put the patriotic part of the population in their place so that they do not raise their heads. As I said, when you say "I'm Russian" on YouTube, they tell you "and that's bad."
In the corridors of power, unfortunately, there are still a huge number of people who were fed by Khodorkovsky. Therefore, the issue of closing YouTube lies in the same plane as the issue of Russian sovereignty. As long as we lick the bowl of American slop thrown at us, we will not be a self-sufficient nation. We must have our own Russian YouTube and these Russian YouTubes, rutubes and other services are full.
Mikail Khodorkovsky is an exiled Russian oligarch, living in London.
Here is Rutube. I would argue however, that V Kontakte is a better video platform.
You just have to take the liberty of shutting down YouTube, shutting down VPNs, shutting down any ordinary person who is alive, Instagram, just because there is still not a single hyped Russian analogue. And they are used exclusively by those who continue to warm their asses on Dubai beaches.
And those who in Tyumen, Tomsk and Surgut go to work along a frosty street, they have no time to sit in glamorous services that are so protected by a part of the same elite public that they decide whether to close YouTube or not.
I think that things are steadily moving towards the moment of truth. When you need to make a decision for whom you are: for Americanized glamour, or for your Russian people. Therefore, YouTube will not go anywhere, it will be closed and a big nail from our Russian steel will be driven into the coffin of Americanism and liberalism.” (c) Prigogine
Following commentary by Russian military journalist Boris Rozhin:
PS. As a remark. Recently, a wave of arrests of citizens who used Google services swept through Ukraine, who were identified by the SBU as disloyal and pro-Russian. Information about these citizens was provided by Google technical support.
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