Russian streaming service Yandex Music removes Novaya Gazeta. Europe’s podcast with no explanation provided

Russian music streaming service Yandex Music has deleted a podcast produced in Russian by Novaya Gazeta. Europe dubbed “Chto novogo?” (What is new?) without providing an explanation.

The link to the podcast now shows a 404 error code.

The team of Novaya Gazeta. Europe thinks that this may be related to the episode of the podcast with Novaya Gazeta reporter Elena Milashina, who talked about the 2004 Beslan school siege and the storming of the school.

The podcast is still available in Russian on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts and Spotify.

Novaya Gazeta. Europe reached out to the Yandex support team; however, company representatives were unable to explain the reasons for the removal of the podcast.

On 6 July, Yandex Music deleted the first episode of the Novaya Volna (New Wave) podcast by reporters Aleksandr Polivanov and Ilya Krasilshchik about life in emigration. On 10 May, Yandex Music removed a podcast by Mediazona dubbed “Khuy Voyne” (“Fuck War”) at the request of Russian censorship agency Roskomnadzor. In April, the service removed a podcast produced by BBC Russian “Chto eto bylo?” (“What happened?”), where reporters discuss the war in Ukraine every day since February 24.

Another Russian streaming platform Soundstream deleted a podcast by Russian independent news outlet Holod after a notice from Roskomnadzor saying that the podcast contains false information on the war in Ukraine.