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Russia not to limit access to YouTube, problems with equipment in place — Kremlin

Dmitry Peskov pointed to "official statements by our respective companies that the issue at hand is the problem with equipment, which has not been upgraded for more than two years already"

MOSCOW, July 12. /TASS/. The Russian authorities do not plan to limit access to YouTube, with all possible problems related to obsolescence of the company’s local equipment, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

"No, there have been no such plans," he said when asked whether the Russian authorities planned to limit access to the service. "However, we know from official statements by our respective companies that the issue at hand is the problem with equipment, which has not been upgraded for more than two years already. There cannot be any other explanations here," he said.

Asked whether Russia’s representatives planned to approach the video platform due to problems with equipment, Peskov did not rule out that Russia’s "respective companies, agencies had approached YouTube." "This is YouTube that took such a position to our market, this is not we that were initiators," he said, adding that this is why "the company (YouTube - TASS) chose this way itself." "We can only regret in this respect, though, of course, withdrawal from the market has its own technological aftermath," Peskov said, adding that he meant the situation with obsolete local equipment.

Rostelecom said earlier that Google was facing technical problems in Russia, which might cause disruptions in Youtube service in the country. Due to issues with the operation of Google's equipment and the inability to expand it amidst rising traffic, there is a significant overload on the existing infrastructure, particularly in traffic exchange between operators. This may affect the loading speed and video playback quality on YouTube for subscribers of all Russian telecom operators, Rostelecom said.

YouTube is owned by Google. The platform removed its Premium subscription option for anyone living in Russia in March 2022. After the start of Russia's special operation in Ukraine, the video giant suspended monetization for content creators from Russia, while Google switched off targeted advertising for Russian residents from the search engine and video platform.