In Russia, the bank account of the Google representative office was seized. The subsidiary declared bankruptcy

The Russian authorities seized the bank account of the Russian subsidiary of Google, which made it impossible to conduct operations and work in the office. After that, the company declared bankruptcy, reports with reference to a representative of the tech giant Reuters.

"The seizure by the Russian authorities of Google's bank account in Russia has made the functioning of our Russian office impossible, including the employment and remuneration of Russian employees, payment for suppliers, as well as the fulfillment of other financial obligations. Google Russia has published a notice of filing for bankruptcy," said a representative of the corporation.

UPD. Later it became known that Google removed most of its employees from Russia — a significant part of employees moved to Dubai, where Google has a large office, writes The Wall Street Journal, citing sources.

It is noted that some employees decided to stay in Russia and leave the company. So soon Google will no longer have employees in this country.

It is known that Google from Alphabet Inc. for months, it has been under pressure in Russia for not removing content that Russia considers illegal and for restricting access to some Russian media on YouTube, but the Kremlin has not yet blocked access to its platforms.

In April, a TV channel owned by a sanctioned Russian businessman reported that bailiffs had seized Google 15 million from Google for failing to restore access to his YouTube account.

At the same time, the corporation did not confirm whether it was the seizure of these funds that led to its intention to file for bankruptcy, or whether other arrests may have taken place.

The database of the Federal Bailiff Service of the Russian Federation recorded two arrests since mid-March without specifying the amounts, as well as other fines and enforcement fees. At the same time, the service confirmed that it had seized Google's assets and property.

A note published on May 18 in the Russian official register fedresurs states that the Google subsidiary "submits a notice of intent to declare itself insolvent (bankrupt)."

Meanwhile, the American company said that its free services, in particular search, YouTube, Gmail, Maps, Android and Play, will remain available to Russian users.

On May 17, the Russian Federation announced that it does not plan to block YouTube, despite repeated threats and fines, admitting that such a step is likely to affect Russian users.

In turn, Rostelecom executive director Mikhail Oseevsky said on Wednesday that Google is operating normally in Russia, including all its servers.

It is known that the income of the Russian subsidiary of the American tech giant for 2021 amounted to about.2 billion.

Earlier, Google disabled all payments from Russia. In particular, you can't pay with any type of Russian card.

Before that, Google Cloud stopped registering new users from Russia.

It was also reported that Google restricts the operation of its Google Play platform in Russia due to its war against Ukraine.