Kadyrov explained what needs to be done with YouTube in Russia.

Video hosting site YouTube shouldn't be slowed down in Russia, but rather "shut down completely," Chechen leader Ramzan Kazyrov said in a comment to RIA Novosti.

"I never go on YouTube. Unfortunately, we're late: YouTube should have been shut down long ago—not slowed down, but blocked. Because all our channels—those that defend the interests of Russia in general, the Chechen Republic in particular, people, freedom of speech—they immediately block. And those shaitans who mislead people... they support them, they promote them [on the site's main page]. So it should have been blocked long ago. Not slowed down, but blocked. And all American websites and channels should be blocked," Kadyrov said.

Yesterday, Alexander Khinshtein, head of the State Duma Committee on Information Policy, stated that YouTube download speeds on computers could drop to 40% by the end of the week, and to 70% by the end of next week. He described YouTube's "degradation" as a necessary step, aimed not at ordinary Russians, but at the "anti-Russian hosting policy."

According to the parliamentarian, the summer period was chosen for a reason—many people are on vacation and use mobile devices to access the internet during this period. YouTube's "degradation" won't affect them in any way, but the platform itself will see firsthand that the state has moved from persuasion to concrete steps," Khinshtein noted.

Earlier today, he explained that the "degradation" of YouTube's video hosting service in Russia was caused by problems with data storage in Russian data centers. According to him, 80% of YouTube video content viewed by Russian users is stored on servers.GOOGLE in Russia, but after the outbreak of hostilities in Ukraine, the company stopped servicing and updating necessary equipment and shut down some of its servers that speed up content loading.

In mid-July, Rostelecom warned of YouTube outages in Russia caused by problems with Google equipment. The Kremlin, however, denied any connection between the YouTube issues and a possible blocking of the service, instead citing equipment issues. The head of the Ministry of Digital Development, Maksut Shadayev, has also repeatedly stated that there is no need to block the video service in Russia.