Russia accuses YouTube of blocking the account of a parliamentary channel

On Saturday, Russian officials accused the US video hosting site YouTube of shutting the lower chamber of parliament's channel and threatened retaliation.

The president of the Duma, Vyacheslav Volodin, said Washington was violating "the rights of Russians," while foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova declared "YouTube has sealed its fate."

"The United States wants to have a monopoly on the diffusion of information," Volodin remarked on Telegram.

"We cannot allow that."

Due to recent US sanctions, Google acknowledged that it has "suspended" Russia's State Duma YouTube channel.

In a statement, a Google spokeswoman said, "Google is committed to compliance with all applicable sanctions and trade compliance laws."

"If we find that an account violates our terms of service, we take appropriate action."

The site was unreachable, according to AFP journalists.

Duma-TV has over 145,000 subscribers, according to Moscow. It shows snippets of legislative discussions as well as interviews with Russian legislators.

Russia's national communications watchdog announced on Thursday that it will prohibit Google from promoting its services in the country, accusing YouTube of disseminating "false news" about its military assault in Ukraine.

Russia has taken steps to restrict access to non-state media and information resources, and worries are growing that Google may be next.

According to the watchdog, Google-owned YouTube had committed "numerous violations" of Russian law and was "one of the key platforms, distributing fake news about the course of the special military operation in Ukraine, discrediting the armed forces of Russia."

It stated that it had chosen to "introduce measures of coercion."

It stated that one of these was a "a ban on distribution of advertising for Google LLC and its information resources."