Russia fines Google $20,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 (no, that's NOT a typo)

Russia says that Google owes the Kremlin more than $20,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 -- an unimaginable amount of money -- after refusing to pay fines that are now building up for blocking pro-Russian channels on YouTube.

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We're talking about 2 undecillion rubles, which is a 2 followed by a mind-boggling 36 zeroes -- which works out to around $20 dectillion, which is (if it makes it even easier) $20 billion trillion trillion. Pro-Kremlin channels that are involved in the case include outlets like Russia 1 and the platform that belongs to Russia Today (RT) presenter Margarita Simonyan.

The legal battle has been described by a Moscow judge as "a case in which there are many, many zeroes".

How much is a dectillion? Well, the World Bank estimates that the size of the global economy is around $100 trillion, which is $100 followed by 12 zeroes. This huge fine towards Google from Russia is far bigger, with 36 zeroes... where back in 2022, Google closed its offices in Russia after the events in Ukraine. Its Russian subsidiary, Google LLC, declared bankruptcy, but still hosts multiple services including its search engine, and YouTube available to Russians (for now, I'm sure this fine won't help).

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov admitted that he "can't even pronounce this figure right" when asked about the lawsuit in a call with reporters, adding that the massive amount of money was "filled with symbolism" and that Google "should not be restricting the actions of our broadcasters on its platform".

Google said: "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. We do not believe these ongoing legal matters will have a material adverse effect (on earnings)".