Russia fines Google US$20 decillion – more than the entire world’s GDP
A Kremlin spokesman admits he ‘cannot even pronounce this number’, and says the penalty for blocking pro-Putin YouTube accounts is symbolic
Russia has fined Google US$20,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000, many times more than the world’s entire GDP, for blocking its YouTube accounts.
That figure – a 20 followed by 33 zeros – is US$20 decillion, to the uninitiated who didn’t know such a word existed. Even the Kremlin acknowledged on Thursday that it was more a symbolic gesture than anything else.
Russia’s beef is that Google is blocking the YouTube accounts of 17 Russian television channels and other media outlets that support President Vladimir Putin’s regime and his invasion of Ukraine, according to Russian media outlet RBC.
On Monday, the issue reached a fever pitch with a hearing in a Moscow court over this “case in which there are many, many zeros”, as a judge described it, RBC reported.
In Russian roubles, the fine is two undecillion, which clocks in at 37 digits.
“Although it is a concretely formulated sum, I cannot even pronounce this number,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters at a daily briefing, according to The Moscow Times. “Rather it is filled with symbolism.”
