Aug 27, 2024 11:08:00

Google's Russian subsidiary goes bankrupt after Putin's government seizes more than $100 million

By

Harald Groven

In 2022, a Russian court ordered Google to pay compensation to state-run broadcasters and seized more than $100 million from the bank accounts of Google Russia. As a result of the seizure of compensation, Google's Russian subsidiary has declared bankruptcy.

Putin seizes $100m from Google to fund Russia's war machine
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2024/08/25/putin-seizes-100m-from-google-to-fund-russias-war-machine/

In May 2022, it was reported that a subsidiary of Google in Russia had filed for bankruptcy after its bank account was seized by authorities. This was the first time that a major American IT company had its entire bank account seized.

Google's Russian subsidiary goes bankrupt after bank accounts are seized - GIGAZINE

The seizure was the result of a court ruling in favor of three Russian broadcasting companies, including Tsargrad TV , owned by oligarch Konstantin Malofeev, who claimed that Google had restricted access to YouTube for some Russian media outlets and had failed to remove content that the Russian government deemed illegal. The three broadcasting companies have also filed similar lawsuits in South Africa, Turkey, Serbia and Kyrgyzstan, and in June 2024 won a preliminary court order in South Africa to pay damages.

The three plaintiff media companies are known as propaganda media that are positive towards the Russian government and the Russian Orthodox Church. Therefore, it is believed that the reason why Google Russia was forced to pay such a huge amount of compensation is due to the intentions of the Russian government led by President Putin.

by Jürg Vollmer

On August 20, 2024, Google filed lawsuits in the UK and the US against three broadcast media companies, seeking to block them from suing Google in courts outside Russia.

According to documents filed in the US court, Google claims that bailiffs have seized more than $100 million in assets from Google Russia, even though the judgment was worth less than $12.5 million at the time.

In addition, the use of the seized compensation money has been a particular problem. The money is being divided among the three broadcasting media companies that filed the lawsuit, but one of them, Tsargrad TV, has publicly stated that it will use the money to support the war with Ukraine, raising international concerns.

According to documents filed in Turkey by The Telegraph, which reported on the issue, the Russian court ordered Google to pay 32.8 billion rubles (about 52 billion yen) in damages to Tsargrad TV, and the amount was set to double every 24 hours. If this was applied, the final amount of damages that Google would have to pay could quickly exceed its market value.

Google described the rulings as 'unprecedented fines and arbitrary legal sanctions' and said they were in retaliation for restricting access to YouTube as part of international sanctions against Russian individuals and entities.