Google's Russian Subsidiary Declared Bankrupt
In a significant development, Google's Russian subsidiary has received an official declaration of bankruptcy from a Moscow court.
This announcement comes over a year after the initiation of bankruptcy proceedings, as reported by the RIA news agency.
Alphabet Inc.'s Russian unit had initially filed for bankruptcy in 2022. The decision to declare bankruptcy followed the reported seizure of Google's Russian subsidiary's bank account by Russian authorities, a move that rendered it unable to meet its financial obligations to employees and vendors.
Notably, the provision of free services, such as search and YouTube, continues despite these financial challenges.
Google's Russian subsidiary has faced mounting pressure in Russia due to issues related to content removal, content considered illegal by Moscow, and restrictions on access to certain Russian media on YouTube.
While the Russian government has taken the step to ban platforms like Twitter and Facebook, it has refrained from blocking access to Google's services thus far.
The backdrop for this development includes repeated clashes between Moscow and foreign technology companies on matters of content regulation, censorship, data handling, and the establishment of local presences.
These tensions have been on the rise, particularly since Russia's military incursion into Ukraine in February 2022.
In recent legal actions, Russia imposed a fine of 3 million rubles (approximately €30,000) on Google for its failure to remove content labeled as fake news concerning the Ukraine conflict.
In a similar vein, a Russian court also levied fines against Apple and Wikipedia for related reasons in August.
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