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Russian court fines Google more than global GDP
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Russian court fines Google more than global GDP

Russia has asked Google to fine it more than the world’s GDP for blocking pro-Kremlin media.

Judges in Moscow are demanding around $20 trillion from the tech giant, several times the global economy’s estimated $100 trillion. If the tender is complete, the penalty is 20 followed by 33 zeros.

The fine, which far dwarfs Google’s own $2 trillion market value, comes after the US tech company banned pro-Moscow propaganda channel Tsargrad TV, owned by oligarch Konstantin Malofeev, from YouTube four years ago .

Google was fined 100,000 rubles per day and warned that the amount would double every 24 hours if payment was not made. The technology giant now owes more than two billion rubles, a 36-figure sum, lawyer Ivan Morozov told the state news agency TASS.

The original fine was increased by further penalties after Google blocked a total of 17 Russian television channels due to international sanctions. According to local news outlet RBC, the judge described the dispute as “a case in which there are many, many zeros.”

The tech giant closed its local Russian office in 2022 following Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine and its subsidiary filed for bankruptcy. However, many of its services, including the search engine and YouTube, remain accessible to Russians.

The Telegraph revealed in August that bailiffs on Moscow’s behalf had seized more than $100 million from the bankrupt company to fund Putin’s war machine.

In court documents, Google said Russia funneled the assets to sanctioned television networks, including Tsargrad, whose owner Mr. Malofeev has been described as an “Orthodox oligarch,” and state broadcaster RT.

In the filing, Google said: “Bailiffs seized more than $100 million of Google Russia’s assets, although the amount allegedly owed under the ruling at the time was less than $12.5 million (1 billion rubles).”

“Tsargrad received a billion rubles from the seizure, which it said it would use to support Russia’s war in Ukraine.”

The tech giant is also fighting efforts by Russian broadcasters to enforce the fines in foreign jurisdictions, including South Africa, Turkey and Serbia.

On Tuesday, Google reported a 15 percent rise in revenue to $88.3 billion for the three months ended September, sending shares up 5 percent in after-hours New York trading.

Despite the astronomical sums Russia is demanding from Google, the company said in its latest earnings release, “We do not believe that these ongoing legal matters will have a material adverse impact.”

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