A Russian court has issued a fine to American tech giant Google to the tune of $20 decillion USD.
To put that in perspective, the global GDP is estimated at “only” $100 trillion USD. Meaning that Russia is asking for money that exists in the world… and probably more money than has ever existed in the world.
Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, YouTube banned pro-military Russian YouTube channels including Tsargrad TV, which is owned by Konstantin Malofeev. Other channels were also caught in the ban wave and shortly after YouTube began distancing itself from the Russian market in keeping pace with US sanctions. This included banning 17 additional Russian news organizations.
In response, Russia seized Google’s assets and distributed them to approved television agencies, including Russia’s state-owned RT channel.
In the years since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Google and other tech companies have devoted time and resources to combatting Russian cybercriminals and disinformation.
In their latest earnings report, Google has claimed that they don’t expect any “material adverse effect” from their ongoing legal trouble with Russia and it seems likely Google will continue to ignore them.
At the time of writing, Google has an estimate $2 trillion in market value. Which falls a little bit short of Russia’s extravagant demand.