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a press release for the event, it was reported that the main purpose of the first
meeting was to determine the format of interaction between bloggers and parlia-
mentarians. Vasily Vlasov, the youngest member of the Liberal Democratic Party
of Russia, led the initiative. He said the idea was prompted by Sasha Spielberg’s
speech. Spielberg, however, did not come to the meeting, nor did many other top
Russian bloggers. As RBC reported, only one-third of the invited guests actually
participated in the meeting. Vlasov said that an invitation was also sent to Navalny,
but there was no response from him.
Nevertheless, the council meeting took place, though not as planned. Some
of the most popular bloggers ignored the meeting, fearing that participation in a
government-sponsored event would cause resentment among their followers. In-
stead there were lesser known bloggers, such as Elizaveta Peskova – the daughter
of Dmitry Peskov, Putin’s press secretary. Apparently, something went wrong with
communications again.
In addition to the fact that YouTube has a huge audience, it is also one of the
few platforms in Russia where any dissent is allowed. It is worth noting that inter-
est in political topics on YouTube is quite a new phenomenon. For a long time
video hosting has only been considered a platform for entertainment. Gradually,
both media and political representatives began infiltrating this part of the internet.
Over the past couple of years, however, channels that talk about politics, and those
who want to engage in politics, have started to actively develop. Channels of blog-
gers speaking about events in Russia and expressing their opinion can boast huge
audiences and, moreover, their videos compete with many TV news channels.
Clearly, Russian users are trying to find an alternative to the traditional TV tem-
plate, and they find it on YouTube. At the same time,
opposition politicians do not have much of a choice.
It is impossible to break through on federal channels;
therefore, social networks have become the only plat-
form for them.
At the moment, Navalny is the Russian politician
who uses YouTube the most effectively. Over 1.5 mil-
lion users have subscribed to his main channel. In
addition, his channel of online broadcasts is actively growing. He is charismatic,
a good speaker and respects his audience – he is not trying to talk to the youth in
its language. No other politician can compete online with Navalny.
Non-political channels and bloggers who deal with social and political topics are
starting to catch up, however. Some of them are in fact ahead in terms of subscrib-
ers. But online, there should be enough space for everyone. Navalny also shares this
opinion. In the summer he launched a contest with a prize of one million roublesRussian online users
seek an alternative
to the traditional TV
template, and they
find it on YouTube.Opinion & Analysis The Kremlin sets its eyes on YouTube, Svitlana Ovcharova