Russia's censor says it won't block YouTube, despite its noncompliance with a court injunction

Russia’s federal censor, Roskomnadzor, says it won’t block YouTube, even though the video-hosting network has refused, so far, to delete Alexey Navalny’s investigative report about billionaire Oleg Deripaska meeting aboard a yacht with Deputy Prime Minister Sergey Prikhodko in August 2016.

Google, which owns YouTube, says it will consider limiting access to the video only after a verdict in a lawsuit by Deripaska against the woman who recorded the footage. “It seems they don’t really understand the term ‘injunction,’”Roskomnadzor head Alexander Zharov said on Tuesday, describing YouTube’s position in the Deripaska case. Zharov didn’t explain, however, why his agency blocked Alexey Navalny’s website for identical noncompliance.

What has Russia banned so far in this mess?

On February 15, Roskomnadzor ordered Russian ISPs to start blocking access to Navalny.com on the grounds that the website refuses to delete photos and videos blacklisted by a court order in oligarch Oleg Deripaska’s lawsuit against a self-described escort who calls herself “Nastya Rybka” (whose real name is Anastasia Vashukevich). Five media outlets, as well as Instagram, complied with Roskomnadzor’s takedown orders. At the time of this writing, Navalny’s February 8 investigative report about Deripaska and Prikhodko has more than 5.9 million views on YouTube.

Why is Navalny fighting this?

Navalny is suing Roskomnadzor for blacklisting his website, arguing that his investigation is based on open-source information, not confidential data. He also says there’s an overriding public interest at stake that eclipses Deripaska’s privacy concerns. Navalny accuses Deripaska of meeting with Deputy Prime Minister Sergey Prikhodko aboard a yacht in August 2016, possibly to discuss Moscow’s interference in the U.S. presidential election. Navalny says Vashukevich’s footage from the excursion is evidence that Deripaska bribed Prikhodko.