The Google’s Russian subsidiary It is going to declare bankruptcy why the seizure of his assets Russia has made basic commercial operations “unsustainable”, including the payment of personnel. Here are all the details.
The Russian branch of Google towards bankruptcy
A Google spokesperson said:
The seizure of the Google Russia bank account by the Russian authorities made the operation of our office in the country unsustainable, including employing and paying Russian employees, paying suppliers and sellers, and meeting other financial obligations.
The company had already paused most of its commercial operations in Russia. However, the company confirmed that it will continue to offer free services come Gmail, YouTube e Search because “people in Russia rely on our services to access quality information”.
Google’s bankruptcy filing is the latest development of a tumultuous back and forth between the tech giant of Silicon Valley and Moscow. Russia has long relied on censorship and to propaganda per shaping public opiniontactics involving the western tech companies in a complicated fight.
At the same time, the Kremlin tried to prevent western tech companies to leave the country. Authorities have ordered Google and 12 other tech companies to keep employees in Russia. This directive, according to the New York Times, is called “hostage law”
There are pasts
Google has already collided with the Russian authorities in the past.
Last September a Moscow court ordered the company to remove search results related to the Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny. The same month, Russian police raided Google’s Moscow office when the company opposed removing an application for smartphone used for collect consents for opposition candidates.
Eventually the application was removed.
Tensions reached a new stage following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Google and some of his colleagues have moved to limiting global propaganda networks of the Kremlin immediately after the February 24 invasion. In early March, the tech giant announced it would blocked all search ads, YouTube e display in Russia. In addition the company has removed RT e Sputnik from search results in the European Union in response to a government regulation.
On March 1, the company said it had removedor hundreds of YouTube channels e thousands of videos for violating community guidelines. Among them we also find videos and channels engaged in “coordinated deceptive practices”.