A Russian court today announced that Google LLC owes the Kremlin a staggering 2 trillion rubles for restricting Russian state media channels on YouTube.

Two undecillion rubles – a 2 followed by 36 zeroes – amount to $20 decillion, or around $20 billion trillion. Considering International Monetary Fund figures put the world’s gross domestic product at around $110 trillion and Google’s parent company Alphabet Inc. has a market value of around $2 trillion, this is somewhat of an unrealistic fine.

According to Russian media, the fine is the amount demanded by 17 Russian television channels and other media whose content was blocked from YouTube after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

“Although it is a specific amount, I cannot even say this number, it is rather filled with symbolism,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said told NBC News. “The company should not restrict our broadcasters on their platform. This should be a reason for the Google leadership to pay attention to this and improve the situation.”

The case goes back to 2020 when YouTube blocked channels belonging to the oligarch Konstantin Malofeev and the Wagner Group mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin. Following the invasion in 2022, YouTube removed the accounts of various Russian media. The court first ordered Google to restore the accounts within nine months or face a fine of 100,000 rubles ($1,000) daily after that period. Every week that passed without compliance, the amount was to be doubled, which is how we get to today’s astronomical sum.

YouTube is not banned in Russia right now, although Google’s local subsidiary in the country was declared bankrupt in 2022. The company doesn’t offer commercial services there any longer, such as advertising, but with Russians still able to view Western content, the Kremlin has occasionally issued fines for what it calls “prohibited” content. This has been going on for years. 

“Civil judgments that include compounding penalties have been imposed upon us in connection with disputes regarding the termination of accounts, including those of sanctioned parties,” Google said this week in a section of its third-quarter earnings release titled “Legal Matters.” “We do not believe these ongoing legal matters will have a material adverse effect (on earnings).”

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