MOSCOW (Reuters) -A Moscow court on Monday fined Alphabet Inc.’s Google 2 million roubles ($28,085) for not deleting content that Russia deems illegal, part of a wider dispute between Moscow and the U.S. tech giant.
Russia has threatened to fine Google a percentage of its annual Russian turnover for repeatedly failing to delete banned content on its search engine and YouTube, in Moscow’s strongest move yet to rein in foreign tech firms.
Google confirmed Monday’s fine, but gave no additional comment. Last month Google and a Russian lawmaker said the company had paid more than 32 million roubles in previous fines.
Russia also fined messaging app Telegram 4 million roubles. Telegram did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Two other administrative cases against Google were postponed until Nov. 29, the court said, in order for a Google representative to have more time to study the case materials.
($1 = 71.2111 roubles)
(Reporting by Alexander Marrow; additional reporting by Maria Vasilyeva; Editing by Mark Trevelyan)
