[FlyingBears]

Russia is trying to follow China's example to shed dependence on West controlled services and grow domestic alternatives. Which is long overdue since they don't have equitable access to these services.

[mechanical_bear]

Cutting yourself off from civilization is not the hallmark of a society that is growing in a positive direction.

[type0]

Russia considers itself to be its own kind of civilization, separate from Western, Chinese and others. It's all in a doctrine "Russian world"

[lostmsu]

You mean Russian government. I don't think people, trees, houses, and rivers care much.

[bilinguliar]

I would speculate that growing local products is not the prevailing reason. An automated detection and detention of free thinkers is.

[thriftwy]

Russian domestic alternatives grew just fine without any blocking. Blocking stuff just angers people and teaches them to use VPN.

[alamortsubite]

How does expelling foreign journalists fit into this plan?

[trallnag]

Russians can host videos on YouTube that get nuked on Russian alternatives