"Therefore, the company chose this path itself, we can only regret in this regard, but, of course, let us just say, leaving this market, it has its own technological consequences," Peskov told reporters.
Russia had no plans to restrict access to the platform, the spokesman added.
"No, there were no such plans. But we know from the official statements of our respective companies that we are talking about a problem with equipment that has not been updated in any way for more than two years. There can be no other explanations here," Peskov said.
Earlier in the day, Russia's telecommunications giant Rostelecom said that there were technical problems in the operation of Google-owned equipment, which may affect the download speed and playback quality of YouTube videos for subscribers of all Russian operators.