Russia seized $100 million from Google to fund propaganda for war on Ukraine: Report

Russia seized around $100 million from Google’s Russian subsidiary in 2022 to fund the propaganda regarding the war on Ukraine, according to a report.

In 2022, Russia seized the bank account of Google’s Russian subsidiary over the crackdown on internet services and censorship. Following the seizure, the Russian regime fined Google around $100 million for failure to remove content on its many platforms that it deemed illegal. Then, Google filed for bankruptcy and said it was unable to pay the fine as the bank account had been seized.

Now, filings in a US court have showed Russia seized around $100 million at the time and used it to fund its propaganda regarding the war in Ukraine, according to The Daily Telegraph.

The filings showed that Russian bankruptcy managers granted the seized funds to Russian state-owned propaganda outlets RT and Tsargrad, which pledged the funds towards Vladimir Putin’s war efforts, as per the newspaper.

In the filings, Google said: “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.”

Google and Russia are engaged in a series of lawsuits outside Russia. Google is working to get such lawsuits blocked in jurisdictions of friendly countries like Turkey, South Africa, and Serbia. For example, Russia has filed a lawsuit in Turkey to demand money from Google as a fine for blocking its propaganda content on its platforms. In Turkey, Russia has sought around $360 million from Google.

If Google loses these cases, then it could be liable to pay amounts much more than its entire valuation as daily penalties to the company double every 24 hours as per the lawsuit, according to the newspaper.