Google has been fined 2 billion rubles ($34.2 million) by Russia’s competition watchdog over claims the firm abused its dominant position in the video hosting market.
The ruling is the latest in a series of hostile moves by Moscow against foreign tech companies, and follows a 21.1 billion ruble ($358.7 million) penalty dished out to the tech giant last week.
Last week’s bumper fine was imposed over what prosecutors alleged were repeated refusals by Google to remove “illegal” content covering the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Announcing the latest penalty levied, the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) said in a statement that Google had “abused its dominant position in the YouTube video hosting services market”, without providing any specific details of the alleged abuses.
Under Russian law, Google must pay the fine within two months of it entering into force.
Google responded to the news cautiously, evidently cautious of further rubbing up Russian lawmakers the wrong way.
“We will study the text of the official decision to define our next steps,” the firm said in a statement.
Moscow has gone on the offensive against Western tech companies following the launch of military action against its neighbor in February. In addition to increasingly punitive action against foreign-owned firms, the Kremlin has also aggressively pushed Russian alternatives to popular Western online services. One example is RuTube, an YouTube alternative owned by state-controlled Gazprom Media.
Google halted sales of online advertising in Russia in March in response to the military action, but has kept some free services available. The company’s Russian subsidiary officially filed for bankruptcy after its bank account was seized by authorities, making it impossible to pay employees and vendors.