A Russian court has fined Google two million rubles – a two followed by 36 zeros – for restricting Russian state media channels on YouTube.
In dollar terms, that means the tech giant was asked to pay $20,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000.
Despite being one of the richest companies in the world, that's far more than the $2 trillion Google is worth.
In fact, it is much higher than the world's total GDP, estimated by the International Monetary Fund at $110 trillion.
The fine has reached such a gargantuan level because – according to the official Tass news agency – it doubles every day it is not paid.
According to Tass, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov admitted that he “can't even pronounce this figure” but urged “Google's management to pay attention to it.”
The company has not commented publicly or responded to a BBC request for a statement.
Russian media RBC reports that the fine imposed on Google is linked to the restriction of content from 17 Russian media channels on YouTube.
Although it started in 2020, the situation worsened after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine two years later.
This has seen most Western companies withdraw from Russia, where their business activities are also tightly limited by sanctions.
Russian media have also been banned in Europe, leading to retaliatory measures from Moscow.
The development marks the latest escalation between Russia and the American tech giant.
In May 2021, Russian media regulator Roskomnadzor accused Google of restricting YouTube's access to Russian media outlets, including RT and Sputnik, and supporting “illegal protest activities”.
Then, in July 2022, Russia fined Google 21.1 billion rubles (£301 million) for failing to restrict access to what it called “banned” material on the Internet. war in Ukraine and other content.
There is virtually no press freedom in Russia, with independent news outlets and severely restricted freedom of expression.
