A Russian court has levied a mind-boggling fine on Google, demanding an unprecedented two undecillion roubles (a two followed by 36 zeroes) over alleged restrictions placed on Russian state media channels on YouTube.
Translated to U.S. dollars, this amount equals an astronomical $20 decillion, a figure vastly surpassing Google’s $2 trillion market valuation and even the total global GDP, which stands at roughly $110 trillion.
The fine is structured to double every day it remains unpaid, creating an unfathomable compounding amount. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov acknowledged the staggering figure, admitting he couldn’t “even pronounce this number,” yet encouraged Google to address the situation.
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The origin of this dispute can be traced back to complaints from 17 Russian media outlets whose content YouTube restricted, initially in 2020 and increasingly after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Russia’s regulatory body, Roskomnadzor, first accused Google of hampering access to Russian state-affiliated media like RT and Sputnik in 2021, and the tension escalated in July 2022 when Russia fined Google 21.1 billion roubles (£301 million) for not limiting access to “prohibited” content related to the Ukraine conflict and other sensitive material.
As press freedoms in Russia remain heavily curtailed, with stringent restrictions on independent journalism and dissenting voices, this development underscores the mounting strain between Russia and U.S. tech companies like Google. So far, Google has refrained from making a public statement on the fine while its legal entanglements in Russia continue. Russian Google
