Google is in big (fake) trouble right now, as a Russian fine against it has ballooned to $2.5 decillion over the last couple of years. In case you’re wondering, that’s $2,500,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 when written out with all 33 zeroes, and when converted, 2 undecillion Russian Rubles. The reason for this astronomical sum being levied against Google? The company blocking pro-Kremlin propaganda channels on YouTube, its video-hosting platform.
According to RCB (via PC Gamer), Russia originally issued a fine of 100,000 Rubles four years ago after the media outlets Tsargrad and RIA FAN won their lawsuits related to YouTube’s channel restrictions, and under state law, the fine doubled for every week that it wasn’t paid. The channels were part of the Patriot Media Group that was headed by former Wagner Group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin, who died last year in a mysterious mid-air explosion after his short-lived rebellion against the Russian military leadership.
That initial fine has ballooned into something impossible to pay off, even for Google, which has net assets of over $300 billion as of June 2024. It’d probably need to sell several trillion YouTube Premium subscriptions to get enough cash, but it’s highly unlikely that it ever will, nor will it likely pay any of the fine. Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Google stopped advertising in the country and its Russian subsidiary declared bankruptcy shortly thereafter.
The Russian invasion of Ukraine had massive ramifications for several games in development, but for one of the most heavily impacted, STALKER 2: Heart of Chornorbyl, the finish line is drawing close after a turbulent period of development. Once again set in the Exclusion Zone surrounding the Chornobyl power plant, the game will be released for PC and Xbox Series X|S on November 20.