The lifting of anti-Russian sanctions by Western countries would not be sufficient to restore the operation of the video portal YouTube in the Russian Federation, according to the deputy head of the State Duma’s Committee on Information Policy, Anton Gorelkin, in an interview with TASS.
“The lifting of sanctions alone is not enough. Even if Google is given the opportunity to settle accounts with Russian contract partners again and maintain its equipment at telecommunications operators, several important questions remain open” the parliamentarian said.
Among the issues, according to Gorelkin, is the opaque policy of blocking the accounts of Russian media and bloggers, as well as the disregard for Russian court decisions on the removal of illegal content by the video-hosting service. Moreover, he emphasized that the demand for Google to establish its own representation in the Russian Federation, instead of the one it had successfully bankrupted, has not been met. Gorelkin also noted that Google must pay all fines in Russia.
However, he added, “Or one achieves an agreement that is acceptable to both sides.”
Earlier, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, following talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Riyadh, told journalists that Western countries must lift their sanctions against Russia if the Ukraine conflict is resolved.