Google Sues Russia Over $127 Million Seized by Government
Google has been having a rough time in Russia this year, but now it's fighting back with a lawsuit aimed at extracting billions (of roubles) from the government.
Vladimir Putin's war with Ukraine has seen most Western companies pull out of Russia, including Google. However, the company was hit with a $370 million fine for spreading "false" information about the war, and was also forced to file for bankruptcy after Russian authorities seized Google's bank account and made it all but impossible for operations to continue in the country.
As Reuters reports(Opens in a new window), Google has had 7.7 billion roubles seized ($127 million). Russian Orthodox TV channel Tsargrad, which is blocked on YouTube, stated bailiffs seized 1 billion roubles (roughly $16 million) from Google for blocking the channel.
It seems this legal action is attempting to get some, if not all, of the seized money back. So far, Google isn't commenting publicly regarding the lawsuit, but court documents seen by Reuters confirm the Moscow Arbitration Court accepted the case on Sept. 30.
The defendants listed in the documents include Russia's Federal Bailiffs Service and a senior official who works there. It's unlikely the result will be positive for Google when you consider the same arbitration court rejected a demand to return the seized roubles from the Tsargrad case in August. You can't fault them for trying, and at the very least annoying the Russian authorities.
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