Asia Tech Wire (Oct 31) -- The Russian government has fined Google 2 undecillion rupees ($20.5 decillion), according to Russia's RBC News, a figure written as 2 followed by 36 zeros that far exceeds the sum of global GDP.

It is worth noting that the total global GDP in 2023 is about 110 trillion dollars.

Google lost a lawsuit in 2020 over the blocking of several Russian media accounts on its video platform YouTube, and since then Google has been fined 100,000 rubles per day, the report said.

Russian courts warned that if Google does not pay the fine within nine months, the amount will double every day.

The courts said that Google would only be able to return to the Russian market if it complied with the judgment, paid the fine and restored the YouTube accounts.

However, the latest penalty amount far exceeds the current $2.16 trillion market capitalization of Google's parent company Alphabet Inc.

Google closed its Russian branch after the Russian-Ukrainian conflict broke out in 2022, and its local subsidiary declared bankruptcy.

The Telegraph revealed that Russian bailiffs seized more than $100 million in assets from Google's bankrupt entity in Russia in August.

Despite Russia's astronomical claims against Google, the company said in its latest earnings report, "We do not believe these ongoing legal matters will have a material adverse effect."

Alphabet released its earnings results for the quarter ending September 2024 on Tuesday night, showing revenue of $88.268 billion, up 15%f year-over-year and above analysts' expectations of $86.44 billion.

Some experts have pointed out that it is clear that Google will not pay the fine and that Russia will not be able to recover the money from the company.