Is YouTube challenging Kremlin media stranglehold?

Cult cartoon character Mr Freeman is part of a digital onslaught on the political establishment Continue reading the main storyRelated StoriesNo end in sight to era of PutinRussians split over Putin for presidentRussia country profile Media control has been one of the key factors that have allowed Prime Minister Vladimir Putin to dominate Russia's political landscape since he was first elected president in 2000.

As the country prepares for parliamentary and presidential elections, though, there are signs that the Kremlin is facing a fresh media challenge in the form of an increasingly politicised audience on YouTube.

Over the past few weeks, a number of Russian politics-themed clips on YouTube have achieved over one million views.

The videos are in a variety of genres - political polemic, satire and song - but they have one thing in common: a critical or irreverent attitude to the country's leadership - Mr Putin, President Dmitry Medvedev and their party, United Russia.

Earlier this year, anti-corruption campaigner and blogger Aleksey Navalnyy launched a web campaign against United Russia under the banner "Party of Crooks and Thieves".

One of the latest instalments in this campaign is a clip on his YouTube channel entitled: "Let's remind the crooks and thieves of their 2002 manifesto". The video lists what it says are United Russia's failures and broken pledges, and concludes: "They have not just lied, they have brought the country to such a state that these and other promises seem to be mockeries". It also urges viewers to vote for any party but United Russia in December's parliamentary election.

The video was posted on YouTube on 7 October. By 28 October, it been viewed more than a million times.

Satire

YouTube is not only giving a powerful voice to the opposition, it is also helping to revive subversive art forms.

TV political satire has been virtually extinct in Russia since the puppet show Kukly (along the lines of the now-defunct UK satirical programme Spitting Image) disappeared from the screens shortly after Mr Putin came to power.

Now, though, this kind of satire is making a comeback on the internet. Not all the satire is anti-government, but it is generally irreverent towards authority.