Russia Fined Google More Money Than Circulates Across the Entire World

Google is one of the biggest companies in the world, but that doesn't mean they have unlimited sums of money. Russia appears to believe differently, though, and they have fined the company more than 2 undecillion rubles. Following the news that Russia had fined the company such an outlandish sum, many naturally wondered what that sum actually is, and whether they plan to collect on it.

Given that a decillion dollars is more money than actually flows through the global economy in any given year, it seems unlikely that Russia will actually be able to collect on the fines that it has imposed. Following the news, though, many were really just confused about the whole thing. Here's what we know:

A decillion is a one followed by 33 zeroes. Russia's fine was actually 2 undecillion rubles, which is a two with 36 zeroes after it. Russia has charged those fines because Google has blocked pro-Russia channels from existing on YouTube, and the Russian government says that those fines have accumulated over time. Google is worth just $2 trillion, so again, the fines seem more than a little extreme.

Dmitry Peskov, a spokesperson for the Kremlin, admitted that he “can’t even pronounce this figure right" but added that the fine was "filled with symbolism." He also said that Google “should not be restricting the actions of our broadcasters on its platform."

Google has yet to release a statement specifically in response to these allegations, but they did discuss "ongoing legal matters" related to Russia during their most recent earnings call.

“Civil judgments that include compounding penalties have been imposed upon us in connection with disputes regarding the termination of accounts, including those of sanctioned parties,” they said at the time. “We do not believe these ongoing legal matters will have a material adverse effect (on earnings).”

Following Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Google curtailed its operations there, but declined to stop them altogether unlike some other American companies.

You may have thought to yourself that the Russian ruble is worth less than the dollar, and so the outlandish sum might not be quite so outlandish in US dollars. While it's true that the ruble is worth less than the dollar, though, that doesn't mean that it's a reasonable sum in dollars. In dollars, 2 undecillion rubles is 20 decillion dollars. For those of you keeping track, that would be a two with 34 zeroes behind it.

It's good that the Russian government seems to understand that the fine is purely symbolic, because that kind of fee is one that the Russians could never actually extract from Google. That, coupled with the fact that Google doesn't really anticipate the fine impacting their bottom line, suggests that the Russian government made this announcement more to draw media attention than because it's actually expecting to collect even a fraction of the money it claims it's owed.