A 36-Digit Debt: Google's Penalty in Russia Climbs Beyond Imagination

Google faces a spiraling fine from Russia, surpassing two undecillion rubles and doubling weekly, with potential service blocks looming as tensions escalate.

Google and the Unending Fine: How a 36-Digit Debt May Be Just the Start

Tech giant Google now owes over two undecillion rubles to the Russian government, a 36-digit sum that doubles daily due to ongoing penalties, attorney Ivan Morozov told Tass publication this week. In dollar terms, this means the tech giant has been ordered to pay around $20,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000.

The fines stem from Google’s refusal to comply with a Russian court order under Article 13.41 of the Administrative Offenses Code to restore Russian state TV channels it removed from Youtube. Morozov explained:

Google was called by a Russian court to administrative liability under Art. 13.41 of the Administrative Offenses Code for removing channels on the Youtube platform. The court ordered the company to restore these channels.

Google can only resume business in Russia if it fulfills this court directive.

Roman Yankovsky from Moscow’s HSE Institute estimated the fine could soon exceed Alphabet’s market value. “Google is a public company, so the value can be calculated by looking at the stock market value of one Google share, or more precisely, one share of Google’s holding company, Alphabet,” he said, adding:

The claim’s size will soon exceed the value of Google, since it doubles every week, and within a year the size of the claim may exceed an actual googol, a number represented by the digit 1 followed by one hundred zeroes.

He asserted that Google “clearly will not pay this claim, and the Russian Federation will not be able to recover this money,” as Google has moved or had its Russian assets seized. Yankovsky warned that “the speed of access to Google services … will be reduced, access could be blocked,” further complicating service access for Russians. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov described the fine as “full of symbolism,” urging Google to “remedy the situation” by restoring Russian channels, calling it “the best thing the company can do.”