Google has sued the Kremlin-owned broadcaster RT, formerly Russia Today, in an attempt to block a global legal battle over the channel’s removal from YouTube.
The US technology giant has filed lawsuits in British and American courts against RT’s owner, TV Novosti, and two other broadcasters.
These include Tsargrad Media, which is owned by the Kremlin-supporting oligarch Konstantin Malofeev and NFPT, owner of the Orthodox Spas TV channel.
Google is seeking a ruling that will prevent the channels from pursuing the technology giant in courts outside of Russia.
Moscow has imposed huge fines on Google in recent years after YouTube blocked the channels in line with international sanctions.
Google has so far refused to pay the fines and its Russian entity filed for bankruptcy after the invasion of Ukraine. Despite this, residents in Russia are still able to access both Google and YouTube.
The three Russian broadcasters are pursuing the company in South Africa, Turkey, Serbia and Kyrgyzstan, as they attempt to seize Google’s assets across the world.
NFPT previously won a preliminary court order in South Africa in June.
However, Google said it was seeking a ruling in the English and Californian courts to declare these attempts as “unjust, invalid, and unlawful”.
A spokesman said: “Google and YouTube are among the few remaining platforms offering access to free and independent information in Russia.
“Over the past three years, Russian courts have levied unprecedented fines and arbitrary legal penalties against Google in an attempt to limit access to information on our services and as a punishment for our compliance with international sanctions against Russian individuals and organisations.
“Over the last few months, Russian parties, some of whom are subject to international sanctions, have filed lawsuits outside of Russia in multiple countries in an attempt to enforce the fines abroad and obtain funds from Google.”
Google has blocked hundreds of accounts and YouTube channels associated with Russian entities to comply with sanctions and in response to Russia’s invasion.
RT had 4.5m subscribers on YouTube after it was blocked in March 2022, weeks before Ofcom took it off the public airwaves.
In October 2022, RT won a Moscow court case against Google ordering it to restore the channels and pay a daily fine of 100,000 roubles (£840) that would double each week.
TV Novosti, which operates RT, is owned by the Russian government. Sir Keir Starmer has previously referred to the channel as Vladimir Putin’s “personal propaganda tool”.
A spokesman for RT responded to a request for comment with an email saying: “Curiouser and curiouser!”
Source Agencies
