A Moscow court on Wednesday, February 25, 2026, found messaging app Telegram and US tech giant Google guilty of violating Russian legislation, imposing fines in separate but related cases involving content moderation and access to restricted online services.
The Tagansky District Court fined Telegram 7 million rubles (approximately $91,300) for refusing to remove advertisements promoting the remote sale of alcohol and content related to LGBT topics. Russian authorities have increasingly pressured platforms to block or delete material deemed to violate domestic laws on alcohol advertising, “LGBT propaganda,” and other restricted categories.
In a parallel ruling, Google was fined more than 22 million rubles (about $287,000) for distributing VPN services through the Google Play store and enabling users to access websites blocked in Russia. The court determined that the company failed to comply with demands to restrict such tools and content, which Moscow views as circumventing national internet controls and Roskomnadzor blacklists.
The latest penalties add to Google's mounting legal woes in Russia. On February 19, 2026, Russia's Supreme Court upheld a lower-court ruling imposing an extraordinary fine of 91.5 quintillion rubles (roughly $1.2 quintillion at current exchange rates)—a figure experts have calculated as approximately one million times larger than the entire global gross domestic product (GDP).
The astronomical penalty stems from a 2020 dispute in which Russian media outlets sued Google over the blocking of their YouTube accounts. Russian courts ruled in favor of the plaintiffs, ordering Google to restore the channels and pay compensation. When Google did not comply, authorities imposed a progressive daily penalty starting at 100,000 rubles and doubling weekly. The amount escalated uncontrollably due to non-payment and compounding.
Following Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Google suspended most advertising and monetization operations in Russia, restricted access to certain services, and saw its local subsidiary effectively cease functioning. The Russian subsidiary filed for bankruptcy in October 2023. The court ultimately capped the theoretical penalty at 91.5 quintillion rubles as of the bankruptcy date; prior to the cap, calculations showed it had ballooned to 1.81 duodecillion rubles—a number with 39 zeros.
Legal experts and observers widely regard the fine as symbolic and unenforceable, describing it as a political gesture rather than a realistic financial demand. Google has no meaningful assets remaining in Russia that could be seized to satisfy such a judgment, and the company has long since withdrawn most operations from the country.
Telegram, meanwhile, has faced repeated fines and pressure from Russian authorities over the years, including demands to provide encryption keys and user data (which founder Pavel Durov has consistently refused). The latest fine relates to content moderation rather than encryption access, reflecting Moscow's broadening efforts to regulate online platforms.
Both rulings are part of Russia's ongoing campaign to assert control over digital spaces, restrict access to VPNs and circumvention tools, enforce domestic content laws, and penalize foreign tech companies perceived as non-compliant or hostile.
Neither Google nor Telegram has issued an immediate public response to Wednesday's fines. The cases highlight the continuing legal and operational challenges faced by Western tech firms in Russia amid geopolitical confrontation and tightened internet regulation.
