Tech Desk 
Nov 01, 2024
As a Russian court fined Google to pay around $20 decillion in punishment, the Kremlin claimed the fine is aimed at prompting the tech giant to unban Russian YouTube channels.
The startling development in the landscape of content was disclosed by the Kremlin to NBC News on Thursday.
According to the publication, the purported penalty is an amount bigger than all the money in the world put together.
Russia fines Google around $20 decillion
It added that the fine is the sum of the amount separately demanded by 17 Russian television channels and other media outlets whose content was blocked from YouTube as outlawed backers of President Vladimir Putin’s regime and its offensive on Ukraine.
$20 decillion equals 20 followed by 33 zeros, which can also be converted to two undecillion rubles, a 7-digit figure.
It was also reported that the fine-imposing court would be agreed on an extended deadline for Google to pay up.
Not only does the amount exceed the entire global economy —put at around $110 trillion by the International Monetary Fund (IMF)— but it also eclipses Google’s $2 trillion market value.
“Although it is a specific amount, I cannot even say this number, it is rather filled with symbolism,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov explained to the news outlet about how Google would be able to pay off such an amount.
“The company should not restrict our broadcasters on their platform. This should be a reason for the Google leadership to pay attention to this and improve the situation,” he noted on his daily briefing call with reporters.
