The $20,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 fine is a response to a lawsuit by Russian channels blocked on YouTube and is largely symbolic.
U.S. tech giant Google has shut down its operations in Russia, but that hasn’t stopped a Russian court from imposing a fine greater than the total wealth of the entire world — and this figure is growing every day.
The fine was handed down after Google-owned YouTube blocked certain channels, and it has now reached over 2 undecillion rubles, which is equivalent to about $20 decillion — a number represented by a 2 followed by 34 zeros.
This staggering amount is far more than the global net wealth, which stands at approximately $477 trillion, according to Boston Consulting Group, and is also larger than the global GDP of $105 trillion in 2023, as reported by the World Bank.
Google’s parent company, Alphabet — valued at around $2 trillion — is worth a fraction of this fine. In fact, the penalty amounts to roughly 10 billion trillion times Alphabet’s value.
In a strange twist of verbal irony, this fine could soon grow to reach a googol — the mathematical term for a 1 followed by 100 zeros, which also inspired the name of the popular search engine.
Dmitry Peskov, the press secretary for Russian President Vladimir Putin, explained that the astronomical sum is symbolic and meant to send a message to Google. He added that the fine should serve as a wake-up call for Google to restore access to the blocked YouTube channels.
“I actually can’t even pronounce that number,” Peskov said. “Rather, this sum is filled with symbolism. These demands demonstrate the essence of our channels’ grievances against Google.”
Google has yet to comment on the situation.
The fine keeps growing because it is tied to noncompliance, with no upper limit. The case stems from a 2020 lawsuit filed by a YouTube channel that was blocked by Google in response to U.S. sanctions. The lawsuit eventually grew to include 17 blocked channels, with the Russian court ruling that Google violated its obligations. This dispute predates Russia’s invasion of Ukraine but escalated after the conflict began, worsening tensions between Russian authorities and Western tech platforms.
In 2022, Google’s Russian subsidiary filed for bankruptcy after Russian authorities seized its assets in retaliation for unpaid fines. Meanwhile, YouTube and other Western platforms began blocking Russian media outside of Russia in response to the war.
This year alone, YouTube has banned over 3,000 channels linked to pro-Russian invasion content. Russian media regulator Roskomnadzor has repeatedly ordered Google to unblock certain YouTube accounts, as well as to remove specific content, including videos posted by Ukrainian groups.
Though YouTube continued to operate in Russia after the invasion, users have reported significant slowdowns or complete failure to load videos in recent months, likely a result of state censorship. However, Russian authorities have blamed Google for the issue, further intensifying the dispute.
