Google is facing a mind-blowing Kremlin fine of more than two undecillion rubles after refusing to restore pro-Putin propaganda channels to YouTube.
An undecillion is a whopping trillion times a trillion times a trillion – or one followed by 36 zeros.
Put another way, the fine is far greater than the world’s total GDP, estimated at $110 trillion (£85 trillion) by the International Monetary Fund.
Google started accumulating daily penalties of 100,000 rubles (£791) in 2020 after the pro-government media outlets Tsargrad and RIA FAN won lawsuits against the company for blocking their YouTube channels.
The daily fines have doubled each week, leading to the current overall penalty of around two undecillion rubles.
Following Russia’s full-scale of Ukraine in February 2022, YouTube – which Google owns – blocked several Russian state-run media outlets supporting the war.
The Kremlin responded by slapping fines on Google but did not ban the channel outright from the country.
Dmitry Peskov, a Kremlin spokesman, called the fine “symbolic” at a press conference on Thursday.
“Although it is a concretely formulated sum, I cannot even say this number,” he said.“Rather, it is filled with symbolism.”
He added: “In fact, this should be a reason for Google’s management to pay attention to this and fix the situation. This is the best that the company can do.”
Sources told the Russian media outlet RBC that 17 Russian TV channels have filed legal claims against Google.
These include the state-run Channel One, the military-affiliated Zvezda broadcaster and a company representing RT editor-in-chief Margarita Simonyan.
As Google has a stock market value of $US2.16 trillion, it is unlikely to find the funds to pay off the eye-watering fine.
The Russian subsidiary of the company filed for bankruptcy in the summer of 2022, as it sought to comply with Western sanctions.
It was subsequently officially declared bankrupt last year in the autumn.
