A Russian court fined Google two sextillion rubles (a 2 and 36 zeros) for restrictions imposed on Russian state media channels on YouTube. This is more money than there is in the whole world – writes the BBC website.
Converted into US currency, this means that the tech giant was ordered to pay $20,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000. ($20 trillion).
Google, or more precisely the parent company Alphabet, is one of the richest companies in the world, valued at $2 trillion. However, the Russian court's punishment is much, much more. Moreover, according to the BBC, it is actually much larger than the global total GDPwhich the International Monetary Fund estimates at $110 trillion.
The fine has reached such a gigantic height because, according to the Russian state news agency Tass, it doubles with each day of non-payment.
According to Tass, a Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov admitted he “can't even pronounce that number” but called on “Google management to pay attention” to the problem.
The company has not commented publicly or responded to the BBC's request for comment.
The Russian website RBC reports that the fine imposed on Google is related to restricting the content of 17 Russian channels belonging to the local media on YouTube. Although the first steps against Russian propaganda appeared in 2020, they intensified after the invasion Russia on Ukraine two years later.
Let us recall that as a result, most Western companies withdrew from Russia, and conducting business there was also strictly limited by sanctions. The operation of many Russian media in Europe was also restricted, which resulted in Moscow taking retaliatory actions. As the BBC notes, the Russian court's ruling is the latest installment in the escalation between Russia and the American technology giant.
In May 2021, the Russian regulatory body Roskomnadzor accused Google of limiting the availability of content from Russian broadcasters such as RT and Sputnik on its YouTube platform, as well as supporting “illegal protest actions”.
Then, in July 2022, Russia fined Google 21.1 billion rubles (£301 million) for failing to restrict access to so-called “prohibited” material on war in Ukraine and other content.
As the BBC notes, there is virtually no press freedom in Russia, and independent news outlets and freedom of speech are severely limited.
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