Russia attempting to force Google to cease operations in country - ISW

The Russian authorities are trying to force the American company Google to stop operations in the country, continuing to issue fines to it.

This is said in a report by Washington-based Institute for the Study of War (ISW), Ukrinform reports.

It is noted that on November 14, the Moscow Magistrate’s Court fined Google 15 million rubles (roughly $165,745) for the repeated failure to localize the personal data of Russian citizens in Russia.

The Russian state censor Roskomnadzor requires foreign internet-based services to localize databases of Russian users as of July 1, 2021, and Russian courts previously fined Google 15 million rubles in June 2022 for failing to adhere to this law.

According to the report, the Russian government previously banned certain Western social media sites and demanded that Google remove “false information” about the Russian war in Ukraine in early 2022.

“The Russian government likely aims to force Russians to utilize search engines and other internet services of Russian companies that the government can control better than international entities like Google,” the report says.

As Ukrinform reported, a court in Russia fined Google for failing to remove allegedly false information about a full-scale war in Ukraine.