In early March, the company decided to stop all advertising sales in Russia in response to the Putin government’s invasion of Ukraine. In that regard, YouTube also decided to ban ads on channels supported by Russian media and subsequently blocked them altogether.
On this matter and despite the bankruptcy declaration, the company pointed out that free services such as Gmail, Maps, Search and YouTube will continue to be available to users despite threats and fines, since they consider that such a measure would make their users suffer in Russia.
“People in Russia trust our services to access quality information and we will continue to keep free services available,” the company said in its statement.
With this decision, Google becomes the first major technology company to file for bankruptcy in Russia as a result of the war against Ukraine. Although other companies, including Apple, Microsoft and Meta, have suspended their operations in the country, they have not suffered the same impact so far.