Has something happened to some Russian vloggers?

Daniil Orain of 1420 and others…

Lately I have noticed that my 2022 post Has anything happened to Daniil has been getting a lot of attention. 300+ just this month.

This is the most recent activity on the 1420 YouTube Channel.

Daniil in Moscow in April 2022 — from this interview:

Just recently, the comments on my YouTube videos said things like, “Russians are just like us.” But as the situation in Ukraine has progressed, they now tend to be more like: “Russians are brainwashed.”

I’m glad people are watching the videos because I know from my experience how helpful YouTube can be. We’re lucky to be able to learn online.

You’ll notice that in my videos, there’s a pretty clear divide between the answers coming from people who grew up in Soviet times and the younger people. When the older generations were growing up, they got their education only from books or teachers — they didn’t have access to the world like people my age do. The position that I’m in, running this channel, wouldn’t have even existed back then….

Just last week, on one of my own videos, one viewer wrote: “You are not scared, not because you are fearless, but because you just haven’t been scared yet.”

That blew my mind. I know what I’m doing is risky, but maybe I don’t feel worried about it because I’ve never actually been that worried. But at the same time, I’m just the storyteller. A lot of people direct-message me asking for my opinion on various topics, but I don’t answer them. 

I see my role as being the person who helps tell people’s stories, and I’ll continue to do so to show how and what Russians feel.

— Interview for Business Insider by Stefano Montali

Three months before April 2022 Daniil featured on Canadian CBC News — so one way or another he would have attracted attention in Russia. Age-restricted on YouTube. “As the war in Ukraine drags on, Russian YouTuber Daniil Orain is using his channel called 1420 to help let the world know there are still dissenting voices in the country.” Do go to YouTube and watch it.

The most recent video we have from Daniil is a livestream from four weeks ago.

I received an email in the past couple of days from Germany, from a Full Professor of Cryptology at the Universität der Bundeswehr München in its Department of Computer Science and Research Institute Cyber Defence (CODE), where he is head of the Quantum Safe & Advanced Cryptography (QuSAC) Lab. This is what he said:

Hi Neil, you did a posting on Daniil Orain and his YouTube Channel 1420 about two years ago. Did you have direct contact to him back then? It looks like he’s missing now. His channel is not updated anymore, lots of videos are deleted and no news. I’m worrying about him. Do you have the possibility to find out, if he’s ok?

Now I too am concerned. Daniil has in my opinion been on thin ice for quite a while.

From that last livestream.

Other vloggers in Russia who have been silent lately include these two:

Nick from Russia/Comrade Nick in the Moscow region and Denis from Vladivostok. Of course there are many reasons possible for this, but I just hope the reasons are not sinister. Both were careful what they shared. Denis I started following in fact because Daniil had promoted him.

Denis

Nick