After a crackdown on VPNs and reports of slowdowns on the site, Russian authorities appear to have completely shut down YouTube's use in the country.

With the disappearance of YouTube, the last remaining Western social media platform in Russia, Russians now need to use the best VPNs to keep up to date with the outside world.

In recent weeks, YouTube's significantly slower download speeds (which Google believes were caused by Russia) made the site difficult to use, but still somewhat functional. Now, a significant and immediate drop in users reported by Netblocks (and anecdotal evidence from various news agencies) suggests that the site has been almost completely blocked.

Alexander Kinshtein, chairman of the parliamentary committee on information policy, said the initial slowdown "is a necessary measure directed not against Russian users but against the management of foreign resources that still believe they can violate and ignore the laws of our country without punishment." He stated.

The need for Russian VPNs is growing stronger as Internet restrictions in Russia become ever more stringent.

VPNs allow users to disguise the location of their IP address to make it appear as if they are accessing the Internet from a completely different country, allowing them to access previously restricted services such as YouTube. All you have to do is download the app to your phone or computer, connect to a server outside Russia, and try it out.

The hard part in Russia is finding a service that works. Authorities are cracking down hard on VPNs, and many were removed from Apple's App Store last month. The good news is that there are some excellent free VPNs that you can test for free, and the top premium providers usually have a 30-day money-back guarantee.

You want to find a secure VPN with a reliable kill switch. This means that if your VPN connection is disconnected in the middle of a session, you won't be caught being on a censored site without protection.