Russian court fines Google more money than entire world’s wealth

MOSCOW (Agencies): A Russian court has fined Google two undecillion roubles — more than all the money in the world — for restricting Russian state media channels on YouTube.

In dollar terms that means the tech giant has been told to pay $20,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000. It is far greater than the world’s total GDP, which is estimated by the International Monetary Fund to be $110 trillion.

The incredible penalty follows the outcome of a four-year court case triggered by YouTube banning the 17 Russian media channels in 2020, in response to the US sanctions imposed on its parent company.

The fine has reached such a gargantuan level because – as state news agency Tass has highlighted – it is rapidly increasing all the time.

According to Tass, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov admitted he “cannot even pronounce this number” but urged “Google management to pay attention.” Google has not commented publicly.

In 2022, when Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, YouTube responded by blocking several major Russian channels, including Channel One, Moscow Media, and Public Television Russia.

That saw most Western companies pull out of Russia, with doing business there also tightly restricted by sanctions.

Russian media outlets were also banned in Europe – prompting retaliatory measures from Moscow. In 2022, Google’s local subsidiary was declared bankrupt and the company has stopped offering its commercial services in Russia, such as advertising.

However, its products are not completely banned in the country.

In May 2021, Russia’s media regulator Roskomnadzor accused Google of restricting YouTube access to Russian media outlets, including RT and Sputnik, and supporting “illegal protest activity”.

Then, in July 2022, Russia fined Google 21.1bn rouble (£301m) for failing to restrict access to what it called “prohibited” material about the war in Ukraine and other content.