Google announced on May 18 the upcoming bankruptcy filing of its Russian subsidiary. A decision prepared for several weeks, after multiple sanctions linked to the war in Ukraine. Free services such as search engine, Gmail, YouTube, Android, etc., will remain accessible in the country.
A long-prepared departure
A spokesperson for the American giant told Reuters that ” The seizure of Google Russia’s bank account by Russian authorities has made it impossible to operate our office in Russia, including hiring and paying employees based in Russia, paying suppliers and vendors, and complying with other financial obligations “. As a result, the company is preparing to file for bankruptcy for its subsidiary.
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A long-prepared decision according to a note from Russian financial register Fedresurs, “ Since March 22, 2022, she [la filiale de Google] anticipates its own bankruptcy and inability to meet its monetary obligations. »
Like many digital companies, Google took action in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. In March, advertisements were suspended across the country. Then, the accounts of certain Russian media, reputed to be close to the Kremlin, were suspended from YouTube.
If the Kremlin affirmed, on June 17, that it did not want Google or YouTube to leave, the sanctions rained down: one billion rubles, around 14.5 million euros at the current rate, were seized from Google’s accounts at the request of a TV channel that has had its content blocked. In December 2021, the giant was fined 7.2 billion rubles, 104 million euros at the current rate, for maintaining online content deemed illegal in Russia.
According to the Federal Bailiffs Service of Russia, two other seizures have been carried out since mid-March, without their amounts being specified. Unable to determine which seizure was the cause of the departure from Google.
Google will not disappear from Russia
Google’s Russian employees have been asked by the company to leave the country since March, says the wall street journal. Most of those who wanted to moved to the company’s premises in Dubai. Since the closure of an engineering center in 2014, the year of the annexation of Crimea, there remained a hundred employees, dedicated to the sale of advertising and other commercial activities of the company, suspended since mid-March. .
Google will, however, maintain its free services in Russia, according to the company’s spokesperson, ” The people of Russia rely on our services to access quality information “.