The American platform Netflix is now inaccessible in Russia, the Californian streaming giant told AFP on Monday, the latest Western company to finalize its withdrawal from the country because of the Russian offensive in Ukraine.
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The Netflix site and application have not been available in Russia since Friday, AFP journalists have noted.
“It is the materialization of the withdrawal from the Russian market” announced in March, explained Netflix to AFP, specifying that the American platform had waited for the end of a billing cycle to block the platform in Russia.
Previously, the site had remained accessible, and customers in Russia with non-Russian online payment methods — those issued by Russian banks that did not pass due to Western sanctions — could continue to subscribe.
In March, the video-on-demand giant announced the suspension of its service on Russian territory due to the conflict in Ukraine and had interrupted its acquisitions in Russia as well as its productions of original programs.
Leader in online video in the world, with 221.8 million paying subscribers at the end of 2021, Netflix had some 700,000 subscribers in Russia, according to official figures from the American platform.
Netflix has joined the slew of foreign companies that have announced the suspension of their activities or their outright withdrawal from Russia since the launch of a Russian offensive in Ukraine on February 24.
