Google’s subsidiary in Russia is planning to file for bankruptcy after the Moscow fined Google multiple times.
On March 22, 2022, Google announced that the company’s subsidiary in Russia might go bankrupt and might not be able to fulfill its financial obligations.
Roskomnadzor, Russia’s authority in telecommunications has fined Google with the sum of 7.2 billion rubles, the equivalent of 106 million euros.
The fine was supposed to be paid until March 19. On May 1, the authorities have started foreclosure proceedings against Google. In 2021, Google Russia recorded a net loss of 26 billion rubles, the equivalent of 383 million euros.
In December 2021, the court ruled against Google and issued a fine of 5% of Google’s 2020 revenue. Google was found guilty of repeatedly violating the legislation that requires the deletion of information from the internet if the owner of the information demands that.
Google is not the only western IT company targeted by Moscow. Twitter, Facebook and Instagram were banned after Russia started the invasion against Ukraine. The main IT companies currently operating in Russia are Yandex ( search engine ), VKontakte ( social networking ) along with TikTok.