Putin fines Google staggering $20 DECILLION – more than the entire world’s economy
Russia has demanded that Google pay a fine worth more than the GDP of the entire world for blocking pro-Putin media outlets.
A court in Moscow is looking to squeeze some $20decillion from the tech giant – that’s 200 quintillion times larger than the global economy.
The sum that Russian justices are chasing is so large, that it would have to be written as 20 followed by 33 zeroes.
It also hugely outstrips Google’s own market value, which stands at $2trillion.
The judge has labelled the legal battle “a case in which there are many, many zeroes”, according to local news outlet RBC.
The technology firm had banned pro-Kremlin channel Tsargrad TV – owned by oligarch Konstantin Malofeev – from YouTube four years ago.
Under Google’s nose, Putin’s courts were handing out daily 100,000 rouble (£790) fines – bolstered by the warning that the penalties would double every 24 hours if it failed to pay up.
By Wednesday afternoon, Google now owes Russia more than 2 undecillion roubles – the aforementioned decillion-dollar fee, lawyer Ivan Morozov told the state-owned Tass news agency.
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The tech firm’s original fine was also hiked up after Google blocked 17 Russian TV channels as international sanctions were dished out following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Google also shut down its Russian division – with its subsidiary firm declaring bankruptcy – as Putin’s tanks rolled across Ukraine’s borders.
But a number of its services – including its search engine and YouTube – have stayed available to Russians.
Back in August, The Telegraph revealed that Russian bailiffs had seized over $100million from the bankrupt subsidiary to fund Putin’s war efforts.
In court documents, Google said Russia had handed its assets to sanctioned TV channels including RT and Tsargrad, the latter of which’s owner Malofeev has been described as the “Orthodox oligarch”.
In the filings, Google said: “The bailiffs seized more than $100million of Google Russia’s assets, even though the amount purportedly due under the judgement at the time was less than $12.5million (1 billion roubles).
“Tsargrad received 1 billion roubles from the seizure, which it said it would use to support Russia’s war in Ukraine.”
The technology giant is also battling Russian attempts to enforce the fines in more Putin-friendly countries including South Africa, Turkey and Serbia.
But in the face of the global economy-breaking sums Russia is demanding, Google said in its last earnings statement: “We do not believe these ongoing legal matters will have a material adverse effect.”