Google Inc. was fined 21.8 billion rubles (about 2.6 billion yuan) by a Russian court on Monday for repeatedly failing to remove content deemed illegal in Russia, Beijing said on July 18.
This is the second fine imposed by a Russian court as a percentage of Google’s Russian turnover. Late last year, Russia already fined Google more than 7 billion rubles on this basis.
Previously, Google has been fined by Russia several times for failing to remove offending content, but generally not for as much as this time. In April, for example, a Moscow court demanded that Google pay a fine of 11 million rubles (about $1.29 million).
Google has not yet commented.