YouTube Blocks Russian Blogger Artemy Lebedev and Channel Changes
The third YouTube channel belonging to Russian designer Artemy Lebedev was blocked after an interview with an editor surfaced. Lebedev publicly claimed that the platform identified the blogger as engaging in deceptive practices. A Telegram channel reported the situation for followers and observers.
Lebedev joked that the new channel would draw attention, stating that the older channel was severely damaged by YouTube. When the new channel was launched at the start of March, it quickly rose to the top position in the platform rankings.
The designer named the fresh channel Vasya Pupkin. Every video began with an introduction from an editor who claimed there was an interview with Lebedev. In reality, the content that followed was a standard news review list rather than a direct interview.
Lebedev noted that the new channel gained 117,000 subscribers within a week and that the videos had attracted 400,000 views so far. He also indicated that there were no plans to open another YouTube channel in the near future. He added that the final episode of the news review would be released publicly on VKontakte.
Earlier, Lebedev had stated that YouTube blocked his new venture, Most Honest News, roughly one week after it began. From late February, the creator started mirroring all videos to RuTube and VKontakte. The main YouTube channel was deleted and all of Lebedev’s videos on the platform were removed on February 22, 2023 due to a violation of the terms of service. At the time of the block, more than 1.1 million people were subscribed to the channel, highlighting the scale of the audience affected by the action.
In the wake of the block, observers monitored how Lebedev redirected attention to alternate platforms and how the public reacted to the claimed interviews and the structure of the news segments. The episode underscores ongoing tensions between content creators and platform policies, especially when channel redesigns and rebranding accompany secure content strategies. The situation illustrates how creators navigate platform rules while preserving the core message and audience reach across multiple networks.