Russian authorities have seized more than $100m (£76m) from Google to fund propaganda supporting Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine, court documents show.
US filings have revealed that bailiffs took the funds from the tech giant’s Russian bank accounts in 2022, tipping its unit in the country into bankruptcy.
According to the documents, bankruptcy managers handed the funds to Russian TV channels including the state-owned RT and Tsargrad, a propaganda service that pledged to use the funds to support the Kremlin’s war in Ukraine.
Google’s Russian entity declared bankruptcy in 2022, saying the Kremlin had seized funds, but it was unclear how much had been taken.
Filings show that bailiffs appropriated the company’s bank account after a Moscow court ruled that it should pay damages to Tsargrad TV, an Orthodox propaganda channel owned by the oligarch Konstantin Malofeev.
Google filed lawsuits against RT, Tsargrad TV and a third broadcaster, NFPT, in US and English courts last week.
Russian courts have said Google should pay the three TV channels huge sums in compensation for removing them from YouTube and deleting their Google accounts.
Google is seeking a ruling to block the broadcasters from pursuing its assets in foreign jurisdictions such as South Africa, Turkey and Serbia.
In court documents, Google said: “The bailiffs seized more than $100m of Google Russia’s assets, even though the amount purportedly due under the judgement 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.”
Court documents say that Moscow-based law firm Art de Lex, representing the bankruptcy manager, has prioritised paying Russian broadcasters when disbursing the funds, ahead of employees and other creditors.
Tsargrad’s owner Mr Malofeev is dubbed the “Orthodox oligarch” and has been sanctioned by the US for supporting Russia’s 2014 invasion of Ukraine. The company has sued Google in Turkey to demand more funds from the company.
According to the Turkish filings, Russian courts have determined that Google owes Tsargrad 32.8bn roubles (£273m). However, because the daily penalties to the company double every 24 hours, this sum could grow to dwarf Google’s entire market value.
In filing the lawsuits last week, Google said that Russian courts had “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 organisations”.
