The Shocking Reason Behind Russia’s Google Fine

Russia has ordered Google to pay a fine of 2 undecillion rubles ($2.5 undecillion), which is far greater than Earth’s total GDP.

Despite changing internet usage, Google has a history of facing costly penalties. The computer giant has reportedly been hit with penalties totalling an estimated $14 billion worldwide over the past ten years.

This may seem like a lot, but according to a recent report by the Russian state media outlet RBC News, which claimed an unnamed person with knowledge of the situation, Google’s outstanding fines in Russia currently total 2 undecillion rubles, or $2.5 decillion. A unit followed by 66 zeros is called an undecillion.

Given that the World Bank estimates that the world’s GDP is approximately $100 trillion, Russia is requesting Google to pay more than the whole amount of money in existence.

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Understand the Term Decillion and How to Represent It

The term “decillion” represents a large number and varies by system. Here are two primary definitions:

1. In the U.S. and modern English system, a decillion is
   10^33.
2. In the traditional European (long-scale) system, a decillion is
   10^60.

For $2.5$ decillion in the U.S. system, it would be written as:

2.5 × 10^33

This number has 32 zeros after the 25, as it’s equivalent to
25 followed by 32 zeros:

2,500,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000

For $2.5$ decillion in the traditional European system, it would be:

2.5 × 10^60

This number has 59 zeros after the 25:

2,500,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000

According to the RBC News article, Google began collecting a daily payment of 100,000 rubles approximately four years ago after banning the YouTube accounts of state-run media outlets Tsargrad TV and RIA FAN, as well as pro-Kremlin groups, for “violations of sanctions legislation and trade rules.”

After that, a Moscow court asked Google to grant access to these accounts again and hit the internet giant with a punishment that would increase daily if it didn’t follow through on its demands.

According to the verdict, the tech giant Google will fined 100,000 rubles daily if it fails to pay the fine within nine months of the action date.

The situation worsened after the Russia-Ukraine war started in 2022, even if the fine was still acceptable. Another round of lawsuits from 17 Russian TV networks resulted from YouTube blocking the accounts of other state-run Russian media channels, including NTV, Russia 24, RT, Sputnik, and others.

The Russian legal subsidiary of Google, Google LLC, declared bankruptcy in 2022 after its debt had grown to almost 19 billion rubles. Google’s holdings in the nation valued at just 3.5 billion rubles at the time.

Google began limiting new account registration for Russian citizens last month, and a month earlier, the corporation said it was shutting down AdSense accounts in Russia.