Google has to pay a total fine of 1,959,811,870₺ to Russia in its lawsuits with Russia. Google started the bankruptcy process because it could not fulfill its financial obligations in Russia. The company stated that it predicted bankruptcy from March 22 this year. Some time ago, Google suspended almost all of its reporting operations in Russia. Russia seized all the company's bank accounts and was unable to invest in Google employees and offices. "The costs in Russia are the costs associated with fulfilling obligations such as purchasing," said a Google spokesperson. Google started the bankruptcy process because it could not fulfill its financial obligations in Russia.
The report states that from March 22, 2022, the firm "obligation to pay its own bankruptcy and the impossibility of fulfilling monetary obligations, severance pay or wages and compulsory payments of persons employed or working under an employment contract" and an application for recognition of its own bankruptcy will be submitted to the arbitration court. In a meeting with RBC, a Google representative stated that the company had previously suspended most of its business operations in Russia, but the company representative said that Google will continue to operate in Russia and offer users its free services such as YouTube, Gmail, Google Maps and others. He added that he will continue.
The accounting functions performed by Google LLC have pulled payments from Russian consumers, but Google has begun offering paid services in Russia, said Mikhail Kerry, managing director of the Internet Defense Association (listed by the Ministry of Justice in the Foreign Agents Registry).
The company was also sued by some Russian media. For example, in May this year, the court granted the NTV channel's request to confiscate the property and accounts of the Russian branch of the company for 500 million rubles. The TV company filed a lawsuit requesting Google to block YouTube accounts from NTV channels. At the end of April, Google announced that it had paid 9 billion rubles in the Tsargrad case. The payment was reportedly due to failure to enforce a court order to restore the channel's YouTube account. The fine was limited to 1 billion rubles, but the limit was removed because Google did not fully comply.
In early April, Roskomnadzor announced sanctions against Google and its resources - regulators decided to ban ads for the US company and its services and ordered search engines to flag Google for violating Russian law.
According to experts, unlike Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, Russian authorities did not block Google for economic and technical reasons. Due to the blockade, Russians and Russian companies whose businesses depend on Google's infrastructure may be affected and may not be able to find an alternative quickly.
According to the SPARK database, Google LLC's losses in 2021 exceeded 26 billion rubles. Bloomberg reported that in late March, citing sources, the company began moving its employees out of the country.
