The YouTube outages reported on Monday by users in Russia

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The YouTube outages, which Russian users complained about, are not related to Roskomnadzor's actions, the agency told Forbes. A source at one of the operators previously told Forbes that the problems with the video service were on the side of Roskomnadzor and the technical means of countering threats (TMTS) installed on the operators' networks. According to the source, the problems could have been caused by a malfunction in the TMTS or by tests of the YouTube blocking service

, Belarus, Ukraine and Kazakhstan egypt whatsapp resource are not related to the actions of Roskomnadzor, the agency told Forbes.

A source at one of the operators previously told Forbes that the problem with YouTube was on the side of Roskomnadzor and the technical means of countering threats (TMTS) installed on the operators' networks. The reasons for the failure are unknown, but, according to Forbes' interlocutor, it could have been caused either by failures in the TMTS or by tests of the YouTube blocking service.

Users began complaining en masse about problems with YouTube after 16:00 Moscow time. Most of the complaints — 2,219 — came from Moscow, another 109 — from the Moscow region. Problems with the video hosting were reported by users in St. Petersburg, Novosibirsk, Krasnodar, Kazan, a number of other Russian cities, as well as in Belarus, Ukraine, and Kazakhstan.

In the comments, users indicated that videos were not playing on YouTube. Some of them noted that problems arose when trying to use the video service on the MTS network. The operator declined to comment in response to a request from Forbes. Forbes also sent requests to Megafon, Beeline (a VimpelCom brand), and Tele2 (a subsidiary of Rostelecom).

In August, Rostelecom invited employees to participate in internal tests of the YouTube access service. The company claimed that the test was being conducted for the "development of its own video products." Stanislav Shakirov, technical director of Roskomsvoboda (an organization recognized by the Ministry of Justice as a foreign agent) and founder of Privacy Accelerator, told Forbes that Rostelecom's tests could be part of preparations for a possible blocking of Google's video service in order to drag as many YouTube users as possible to its platform. Forbes' sources in major telecom operators had previously said that a possible decision to block YouTube was expected "in September-November 2023."