Now you can finally catch divisive Russian YouTube star Yuri Dud in English

Russian YouTuber Yuri Dud has announced the addition of English subtitles to a dozen of his interviews, reports, and documentaries.

The journalist, who rose to fame thanks to his wildly popular vlog VDud, launched his YouTube channel in 2018, making a name for himself with long form interviews with Russian rappers. Renowned cultural and political figures have also taken to the channel, including opposition political leader Alexey Navalny, former presidential candidate Ksenia Sobchak, Oxford-educated rapper Oxxxymiron, and oligarch and activist Mikhail Khodorkhovsky.

With over six million subscribers on YouTube and an average of 10 million views per video, the 33-year-old is part of Russia’s changing media landscape, moving away from state-controlled television to a freer digital space.

The former sports correspondent also produced two documentaries earlier this year, including Kolyma – the Birthplace of Our Fear. The two-hour video tells the story of the millions of Soviet citizens sent to Siberian gulags during Stalin’s regime. Dud says he took on the film project to educate his younger viewers, following a poll showing that almost half of 18 to 24-year-olds in Russia had never heard of Stalinist repressions.

His most recent documentary, Beslan. Remember, released in September, covers the role of the state in the 2004 school siege in North-Ossetia, which involved the imprisonment of over 1,000 people as hostages and the killing of more than 334 people, including 186 children. The film was criticised by state-supported media, who claimed that he “overemphasised” the responsibility of the government in the tragedy.