I am really surprised that YouTube is blocked in Russia only now. Every day I see all sorts of Ukrainian victories, including anti-Putin videos.

This has also puzzled me for several months, but it seems to be (among other things) due to fear of social unrest:

State efforts to block access to various platforms and services that it deems undesirable or threatening are becoming increasingly sophisticated. I have so far been hesitant to ban or restrict access to YouTube due to factors such as the platform’s role in entertainment, potential backlash from the community, and technical challenges. YouTube presents unique challenges to censorship due to its constant data volume, making monitoring and blocking more resource-intensive.

See this article: https://dgap.org/en/resea…russia-just-matter-time-0

So Russia isn’t imposing a full ban (well, apparently so far…), but it is intentionally slowing down videos, etc.

In the meantime, they are trying to push alternatives through which the authenticity of the content can be questioned, to keep it tempered:

State-controlled alternative platforms like RuTube and VK Video are not viable alternatives yet. They face challenges in user engagement, content recommendation, and reliability. However, the state is actively pushing these platforms and luring creators to show exclusive content on them by offering high-paying contracts. Investments in these platforms may soon make them viable and lead to users switching to them. Meanwhile, online content creators classified as “foreign agents” face financial constraints due to the loss of advertising revenue, threatening their business.

(From the same article mentioned above)