YouTube Blocks Russian Parliamentary Channel, State Duma Responds

Russian officials accused YouTube of blocking the lower house of parliament's channel account, on Saturday, warning of reprisals.

Vyacheslav Volodin, the head of the State Duma, said Washington was breaching "the rights of Russians".

"The United States wants to have a monopoly on the diffusion of information," Volodin revealed on Telegram. "We cannot allow that".

On her part, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova noted "YouTube has sealed its fate".

Duma-TV, which airs clips of parliamentary debates and interviews of Russian lawmakers, has more than 145,000 subscribers, according to Moscow.

On Friday, Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin stressed the necessity to develop an alternative platform for App Store and Google Play as they may soon forbid services in Russia.

“Using this opportunity, I would like to make a call: guys, developers, programmers, IT folks – let us make our own ecosystem. We have everything for that,” Mishustin said, speaking before the State Duma Thursday.

“There are elements of this ecosystem that need to be perfected. We must make our own online store, because App Store and Google Play may practically prohibit us from downloading apps soon.”