Russia's prime minister said on Thursday that Moscow would not block video-sharing platform YouTube in the country.

Axar.az reports citing Russian media.

In a televised interview, Dmitry Medvedev said a recent law on sovereign internet rights had been adopted not for blocking websites, but to protect Russia from being cut off from the global network.

"Those who earn on YouTube will be able to earn -- although this depends not on us, but on the policy of YouTube itself," he said.

On Nov. 1, a "sovereign Internet" law took effect in Russia, under which internet providers are required to install special equipment to track and reroute traffic, as well as filter content and block websites.

Earlier, the Russian parliament passed a law demanding data storage of Russian users of foreign websites in Russia.