A Russian court has fined Google two decillion rubles - a two followed by 36 zeros - for restricting Russian state media channels on YouTube.
In dollars, that means the tech giant has to pay $20 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000, the BBC reported.
Despite being one of the richest companies in the world, this is significantly more than Google's $2 trillion value.
In fact, it's a much larger sum than the total global GDP, which the International Monetary Fund estimates at $110 trillion.
The fine has reached such spectacular levels because it doubles every day that it is not paid, according to the state news agency TASS.
Kremlin press secretary Dmitry Peskov has admitted that he "can't even pronounce that number" but has urged "Google's leadership to pay attention."
Russian media outlet RBC reported that Google's fine was related to the restriction of content on 17 Russian media channels on YouTube.
Although this began in 2020, it escalated after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine two years later.
Most Western companies pulled out of Russia, doing business there was also severely restricted by sanctions.
Russian media channels were also banned in Europe, prompting retaliatory measures from Moscow.
This represents the latest escalation between Russia and the US tech giant.
In May 2021, Russian media regulator Roskomnadzor accused Google of restricting access to YouTube by Russian media outlets, including RT and Sputnik, and supporting "illegal protest activity."
Then, in July 2022, Russia fined Google 21.1 billion rubles for failing to restrict access to so-called "banned" material about the war in Ukraine and other content.
There is virtually no press freedom in Russia. Independent news outlets and freedom of expression are severely restricted. | BGNES
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