Why Russia wants to fine Google more than Earth’s total wealth

According to the World Bank’s estimate, the global GDP is somewhere around $100 trillion, which means the amount Russia is asking Google to pay is more than the money that exists on Earth.

The report by RBC News states that around four years ago, Google started accumulating a daily fine of 100,000 rubles after it banned the YouTube accounts of pro-Kremlin and state-run media outlets Tsargrad TV and RIA FAN for  “violations of sanctions legislation and trade rules.”

Following this, the Moscow court ordered Google to restore access to these accounts and slapped the tech giant with a daily increasing fine in case the company failed to implement its orders. The ruling stated that Google had to pay the fine within nine months from the date of enforcement and that if does not do so, the tech giant will incur a daily fine of 100,000 rubles.

While the fine was still manageable then, the situation got worse after the Russia-Ukraine war broke out in 2022.  YouTube also blocked accounts of other Russian state-run media outlets like NTV, Russia 24, RT, Sputnik and others, which triggered another wave of lawsuits from a total of 17 Russian TV channels.

In 2022, Google’s Russian legal entity, which operates under the name Google LLC had filed for bankruptcy as its debt had then racked up to more than 19 billion rubles. At the time, Google had only 3.5 billion rubles worth of assets in the country. Last month, Google started restricting the creation of new accounts for people living in Russia and a month prior, the company decided that it was deactivating AdSense accounts in the country.