Google V Putin: Outrage as Warmonger Seizes $100M From Search Titan's Moscow Bank Accounts to Fund Russia's War Machine
Vladimir Putin's war in Ukraine has now entangled Google.
Aug. 26 2024, Published 10:00 a.m. ET
Russian authorities have seized more than $100million from Google to help fund Vladimir Putin's war in Ukraine.
RadarOnline.com can reveal bailiffs emptied the Russian bank accounts owned by the tech giant in 2022, tipping the Russian subsidiary of Google into bankruptcy.
Google claims the Kremlin took hundreds of millions from them to fund propaganda.
The move caused Google to completely leave Russia in 2023.
The cash was then handed over to propaganda service Tsargrad and state-owned TV channel RT, both pledging to use the funds to aid in the Kremlin's war in Ukraine.
When Google's Russian entity declared bankruptcy in 2022, they claimed the Kremlin had taken the funds but did not say how much had been taken.
Court filings say bailiffs seized tens of millions from Google's bank account following a Moscow court's decision, which ordered the company to pay damages to Tsargrad TV, a pro-Orthodox media outlet owned by oligarch Konstantin Malofeev.
Last week, Google filed lawsuits against RT, Tsargrad TV and a third channel, NFPT, in both the U.S. and the U.K.
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky has become a main stay in the media.
Google is trying to prevent the Russian broadcasters from seizing its assets in, South Africa, Turkey and Serbia.
The move comes after Tsargrad’s owner, Konstantin Malofeev, sued Google in Turkey allowing him to seize more funds.
Russian courts have ruled that Google owes Tsargrad a shocking 32.8bn roubles, the oligarch's legal filings in Turkey show.
Since the daily penalties double every 24 hours, this amount could quickly surpass Google's market value -- currently at $2trillion
The move also comes as Russian courts claim Google should pay huge sums to the three TV channels in compensation for deleting their Google accounts and removing them from YouTube.
Putin has not commented on the Google lawsuit.
In the court documents, Google claims: "The bailiffs seized more than $100m of Google Russia’s assets, even though the amount purportedly due under the judgment 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."
According to court documents, the Moscow-based law firm Art de Lex, representing the bankruptcy manager, has prioritized paying Russian broadcasters first when distributing funds, instead of employees and other creditors.
Tsargrad’s controversial owner has previously been sanctioned by the U.S. for supporting Russia's 2014 invasion of Ukraine.
Google's court docs bash Russian courts for "unprecedented fines" among other claims.
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The docs continued: "Russian courts levied unprecedented fines and arbitrary legal penalties against Google in an attempt to limit access to information on our services and as a punishment for our compliance with international sanctions against Russian individuals and organizations."
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