Russia is traumatic an astronomical sum from Google, one of the world’s leading tech giants, which reportedly owes the Kremlin extra than 2 undecillion rubles — a 2 observed through 36 zeroes — for refusing to pay fines incurred after blocking seasoned-Russian YouTube channels. The outstanding penalty, equal to approximately $20 decillion (or $20 billion trillion trillion), massively surpasses the size of the worldwide financial system. By comparison, the world’s GDP stands at around $one hundred ten trillion, consistent with IMF figures, whilst Google’s parent enterprise, Alphabet, has a marketplace price of approximately $2 trillion. Russian state information organization TASS said that a court docket had formerly ordered Google to unblock the channels, lots of which have been limited considering that 2022, or face exponentially growing fines that double every week. When asked approximately the lawsuit, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov admitted he “can’t even pronounce this figure” however stated the quantity changed into “symbolic,” criticizing Google for restricting Russian broadcasters on its platform. Google, in its present day earnings file, mentioned “ongoing felony matters” regarding its Russian commercial enterprise, specially associated with compounding civil judgments on account terminations, together with for sanctioned events. The organisation said that it does now not count on those problems will effect its income materially. Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Google scaled again its operations in Russia, even though offerings like Search and YouTube remain to be had. In the months after the invasion, Google’s Russian subsidiary filed for financial disaster and suspended most commercial operations after the government took manage of its financial institution accounts.
