The Russian video service Rutube, owned by the Gazprom-Media holding company – which was supposed to replace the American YouTube in Russia – will carry out “significant” staff reductions.

This is reported by The Moscow Times, citing sources.

According to them, the employees were explained the dismissal by the merger of the video portal with the online cinema Premier and the application for short vertical videos Yappy.

“We were told that we were being fired by mutual consent and would be paid two months’ salaries, since Rutube would not operate in its current form. The HR department added that the company did not have the money to maintain such a staff ,” one of the publication’s interlocutors said.

He added that staff optimization is being carried out “as quickly as possible,” and employees are being “reduced by department.”

Gazprom-Media confirmed that the holding is conducting “restructuring and optimization of the team functionality” of several services due to the upcoming merger. However, the holding’s press service did not specify how many employees will be affected by the optimization.

The Russian authorities blocked YouTube in the Russian Federation last summer . At first, the service was slowed down on stationary computers. At that time, Roskomnadzor explained what was happening by “technical problems”, which were allegedly caused by the wear and tear of Google’s servers. However, the American corporation denied the existence of technical malfunctions. At the same time, the video hosting continued to work in the old mode on mobile devices until December.

After the complete blocking of YouTube, Roskomnadzor stated that access to the service was limited due to violation of the law and “disrespect” for the country. The agency recalled that the video hosting service blocked more than 200 Russian propaganda channels, of which more than 80 in 2024. At the same time as the gradual blocking of YouTube, the Russian authorities called for switching to Rutube. Gazprom-Media reported that the audience of the Russian video service grew by 65% ​​in 2024 – to 78.3 million active users.

As reported, the Russian video hosting company Rutube, owned by Gazprom-Media, admitted that it transfers “all data” of its users to the state .

In mid-March, it was reported that traffic to the American video hosting service YouTube in Russia had almost halved after a new phase of blocking that began in December 2024.

In December last year, it became known that telecommunications operators in the Russian Federation would be required to transfer data about users who visit websites blocked in Russia.

In February 2025, it was reported that the Russian authorities’ efforts to lure users to the Russian “killers” of the American video service YouTube had failed, and this was actually confirmed by the Russian Ministry of Digital Affairs . Thus, according to the head of the Department for the Development of Mass Communications of the Russian Ministry of Digital Affairs, Ekaterina Larina, Russian services lack content that is “interesting to viewers.” In addition, Russian platforms should have welcomed new users “more hospitably.”

Author:  Halyna Yalivets Джерело: https://censor.net/n3570823

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