Suspended YouTube accounts are the reasoning behind a legal dispute between Google and Russia.
Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Google pulled back on its operations in the country, however, many of its services, including Search and YouTube, remain available in Russia.
The Kremlin stated that because of it’s suspension of services, Google owes them over 2 undecillion rubles — a 2 followed by 36 zeroes. The amount in USD, equates to $20 decillion — or around $20 billion trillion trillion. Critics of the Kremlin have labelled the move “clearly insane” and “absurd.”
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov confessed that he “can’t even pronounce this figure right”. However, he stated that the amount was “filled with symbolism.” Google “should not be restricting the actions of our broadcasters on its platform.”
Nigel Gould-Davies, of the International Institute for Strategic Studies wrote on X, “So even if Google gave Russia everything the world produced this year, every day since the universe began, it would only have paid about 3% of this fine.” He joked that the fine is like “putting a dead person on trial” — as Google currently has no real active presence in Russia.
Alphabet’s Q3 results, released this week mentioned “ongoing legal matters” relating to Russia. “Civil judgments that include compounding penalties have been imposed upon us in connection with disputes regarding the termination of accounts, including those of sanctioned parties,” the report said, “We do not believe these ongoing legal matters will have a material adverse effect (on earnings).”
By CEO NA Editorial Staff
