The Kremlin seized more than £76m from Google‘s accounts in Vladimir Putin’s Russia – and used this to fund propaganda supporting the war in Ukraine, court documents claim.
The assets seizure came after a Russian court ruled that Google must pay damages to three Russian TV channels.
The courts ordered Google to pay RT, Tsargrad, NFPT huge sums in compensation after it removed them from YouTube and deleted their Google accounts.
Google’s Russian arm subsequently declared itself bankrupt in 2022. The tech giant had previously said the Kremlin had seized its funds but did not reveal how much.
However, last week Google filed lawsuits in US and English courts.
The filings say the Kremlin’s bailiffs seized tens of millions of dollars – and gave it to Russian TV channels to support Putin’s war in Ukraine, reports The Telegraph.
In the court documents, Google states: “The bailiffs seized more than $100m of Google Russia’s assets, even though the amount purportedly due under the judgement at the time was less than $12.5m (one billion roubles).
“Tsargrad received one billion roubles from the seizure, which it said it would use to support Russia’s war in Ukraine.”
The tech firm said that Putin’s courts had “levied unprecedented fines and arbitrary legal penalties against Google in an attempt to limit access to information on our services and as a punishment for our compliance with international sanctions against Russian individuals and organisations”.
Google is also attempting to prevent the Russian broadcasters from seizing its assets in other foreign jurisdictions, like South Africa, Turkey and Serbia.
It comes after Tsargrad’s owner – the oligarch Konstantin Malofeev – sued Google in Turkey to seize more funds.
Tsargrad’s legal filings in Turkey show that Russian courts have ruled that Google owes Tsargrad an eye-watering 32.8bn roubles (£273 million).
However, this daily penalty doubles every 24 hours – so the sum risks swallowing Google’s entire market value, which is around $2 trillion (£1.5 trillion).