Russia fines Google a huge sum over YouTube bans

Google has been fined again in Russia by remove Russian television channels from YouTube. The amount of the penalty, however, has increased to an unprecedented level in the last 4 years, since the judicial process began in Russia against the technology giant.

According to lawyer Ivan Morozov, quoted by the Russian state news agency TASS, the violations have cost the technology giant 2 billion rubles or 20 billion dollars (a 33-digit figure).

To put it in perspective, World GDP reaches an estimated figure of 110 trillion dollars (12-digit figure), according to the IMF.

Another expert quoted by the Russian news agency, Roman Yankovsky of the HSE Institute of Education, told TASS that Google “clearly will not pay this fineand the Russian Federation will not be able to recover this money from the company.”

A brief calculation shows that he is right. The holding company GoogleAlphabet, has a market capitalization of just over $2 trillion. Even with profits of 80,540 million dollars (73.96 billion euros) in the last quarter, it does not seem that the technology giant can afford to pay the fine.

The possible claims of the Russian Government are only viable at the national level. The British technology newspaper ‘The Register’ reported that the amount has been calculated after a four-year judicial process that was triggered by YouTube banning the Russian ultra-nationalist channel Tsargrad in 2020 in response to sanctions imposed by the United States on its parent company. Google did not immediately respond to Euronews Business’ request for comment.