First Science, Now YouTube: Russia Expands the Zone of Prohibition

This week in Russia, it became visible once again how quickly the zone of prohibition is expanding. On March 2, 2026, the Ministry of Justice added the University of California, Berkeley to the list of “undesirable” organizations. Yale University had already been placed there on July 11, 2025. At first glance, this may look like just another addition to an endless blacklist. In reality, it is far more dangerous: not only the organizations themselves are being targeted, but also any links, references, and academic materials connected to them.

And this is no longer theoretical. In Yaroslavl, a university employee was fined 20,000 rubles for links to IELTS, Yale University, and the Carnegie Foundation on the university’s website. These were not cases of political agitation, but entirely ordinary university sections—for language learners, early-career scholars, and the research library. That means the risk now extends not only to activists and journalists, but also to teachers, researchers, educational materials, and older academic infrastructure.

And now comes the next step. On March 5–6, 2026, the Federal Antimonopoly Service and Roskomnadzor effectively confirmed that advertising on Telegram, YouTube, and other platforms with restricted access is prohibited, and administrative cases are already beginning. This is no longer a “ban without a ban,” but a direct prohibition written into law and reinforced through enforcement. The blow falls on the very basis of independent existence: the income of authors, editorial teams, educational initiatives, and cultural projects that survived not on state contracts, but on advertising, audiences, and their own work.

The scale of the blow is also enormous. According to market estimates, by the end of 2025 Telegram and YouTube accounted for around 70% of the Russian influencer advertising market. This is not a limited measure against a few specific services. Independent actors are simply being stripped of their economic ground. First, people are shown that even linking to academic materials from “undesirable” organizations is dangerous. Now they are being shown that earning money on independent platforms is no longer allowed either. Step by step, Russia is suffocating not only media, but also science, education, and the very possibility of living and working independently.