The Kremlin is creating a “YouTube killer” based on VK

Russian authorities on the basis of the social network VK (“VKontakte”) support the creation of video hosting, which could in the future become the “killer of YouTube” – that is, replace video hosting YouTube, if a decision is made to block it in Russia. The project is headed by Stepan Kovalchuk, the grandson of Mikhail Kovalchuk, head of the Kurchatov Institute, who is part of President Vladimir Putin’s inner circle. This is stated in a large article published by “Meduza” and The Bell, dedicated to how the Kremlin uses “VKontakte” and related services for its own purposes.

According to the authors of the investigation, the authorities decided to “seriously” take on VKontakte and the Odnoklassniki network belonging to the same corporation after the release of Alexei Navalny’s investigation “He is not Dymon” in 2017. Representatives of the presidential administration began to “set tasks” to the top managers of VK to promote the pro-government context. A few years later, billionaire Alisher Usmanov sold the VK Sogaz corporation to Yury Kovalchuk, another friend of Putin, and Gazprom-media. The investigation claims that the president’s administration was behind the deal (Usmanov’s representative denies this). “A large social network focused on young Russians and fully controlled by the state appeared on the market for the first time,” Meduza notes. The corporation was headed by the son of the deputy head of the presidential administration, Vladimir Kyryenko, who, according to sources, “coordinates almost all his actions with his father.”

According to the plan of the Russian authorities, the VK Video platform should become the “Killer of YouTube”. The company, among other things, bought a controlling stake in Medium Quality Production — one of the main Russian entertainment productions. VK also cooperates with “Da-Tim Production”, a company that, as “Proekt” previously reported, “spends hundreds of millions of rubles on the production of propaganda content.” According to one of the sources, this company has created a “troll factory” that will promote a pro-government agenda before the presidential elections. “Before the March presidential elections of Russia, both VKontakte and Odnoklassniki will turn into the main pro-Kremlin agitators,” the investigation says, citing an unnamed political technologist. Responsible for the campaign, as stated, will be ANO “Dialog”, which is engaged in the media service of the Ministry of Defense, and previously led an agitation campaign for amendments to the Constitution.

At the same time, it is noted that the official statistics of views of “VK Video” are doubtful.

Also, as stated in the material, VK is developing a Unified Content Platform (UCP), which should unite the “YouTube killer”, VK, “Odnoklassniki” and many other services. “Ideally, EKP will be able to replace – at least partially – if not all, then the majority of foreign platforms and services. According to one of the sources, the management of VK has long wanted to use the experience of China as an analogue,” says the article, the authors of which state , that “the press service of VK did not respond to questions for this material.”