According to the RBC news website, Google has withdrawn its services from Russian servers meant to increase internet speeds.


Local providers can use Google Global Cache (GGC) to serve Google content, including YouTube videos, from their own networks, reducing client wait times. Without GGC, Russian consumers would have to wait longer to receive Google material straight from the company's servers in the United States.


According to RBC, Google's Irish subsidiary warned two Russian GGC providers — MFTI Telecom in the Moscow region and Radiosvyazi in Orenburg in the south — that their contracts will expire on May 19.


The cut-off, according to a spokesman from Orenburg's Radiosvyazi, might be due to their servers' low traffic levels.


However, MFTI Telecom, in remarks to RBC, connected the decision to US sanctions against the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, commonly known as MFTI in Russian. (The two are unrelated.)


Major Russian internet providers, including Rostelecom and mobile companies MTS and Megaton, claimed traffic through GGC servers was unaffected.


Days after Russia invaded Ukraine in late February, Cogent Communications, a large US provider that transports about 25% of global internet traffic, disconnected Russian clients from its high-capacity internet service.


The US State Department, on the other hand, warned against restricting internet access for Russians on Tuesday.


At a news conference on Thursday, spokesperson Ned Price stated, "It is our intention to do everything we can responsibly to ensure that the information environment in Russia is not further constricted."