This Russian whopping fine that will never be paid
Google is facing a 2.5 decillion ruble fine in Russia after the American tech giant refused to reinstate Russian state-funded media outlets, despite repeated requests from the Kremlin.
According to a source close to the judiciary cited by RBC, Google has been accumulating daily fines of 100,000 rubles since 2020, the year when two Russian media outlets, Tsargrad and RIA FAN, won their case against the company.
Following this ruling, the daily penalties doubled and have since compounded to reach the staggering sum of 2 decillion rubles, a number with 36 zeros.
Google’s parent company, Alphabet, will never realistically pay this exceptionally large fine, especially given that the company earned $303 billion last year.
RBC sources report that at least 17 Russian channels have filed complaints against Google.
Since the start of the war in Ukraine, YouTube, which is owned by Google, has blocked multiple state-funded Russian media channels.
(QG - Source : Moscow Times / RBC / Picture: © Unsplash)