The occupation authorities of Kherson region followed the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk people's republics in blocking Google on their territory. The Zaporizhzhia authorities, appointed after the Russian invasion, slowed down the company's services and threatened to block it if Google "does not take its wits about it.
Kirill Stremousov, deputy head of the pro-Russian administration of the Kherson region, called Google an element of information terrorism.
"The search engine is blocked. The reason is the use of these social networks as elements of information terrorism by the Ukrainian authorities and their American handlers, as malicious information dumpsters," Stremousov reported
Prior to this, YouTube, Viber, Instagram and a number of other services and resources were blocked in the Kherson region. "We had Youtube shut down a few days ago. We have no Youtube or Instagram. But that's okay, we are doing fine," spokesman for the Kherson regional state administration Sergei Moroz said in early July.
"The work of the Google search system is slowed down, and if they do not get smart and continue to pursue a policy of disinformation and propaganda of violence, as well as dehumanizing residents of the liberated territory, a similar fate awaits them - blocking," said Vladimir Rogov, head of the pro-Russian Zaporizhia regional administration.
He recalled that Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube video hosting were blocked in the region earlier. Rogov is sure that these services did not provide equal conditions for people to express their own position.
In May, mobile communications and the Internet were cut off in the Russian-occupied territories of the Kherson and Zaporizhia regions of Ukraine. As the State Service for Special Communications of Ukraine reported, Russian authorities severed fiber-optic cables and disconnected service providers' equipment from electricity.
Russian mobile operators then began operating in these regions. Subsequently, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia were switched to the Russian numbering plan with the telephone code "+7.
The DNR and LNR authorities explained the blocking of the search engine by the large amount of misinformation on the Internet. The head of the DNR Denis Pushilin reproached the company for "inhuman propaganda of Ukraine and the West" and accused it of "real harassment of Russians. LNR head Leonid Pasechnik promised to "consider" unblocking Google after the search engine "corrects itself" and "starts respecting people.
Russia has also accused Google of refusing to remove "fakes" about the war in Ukraine, but has so far limited itself to fines. After several trials, the court began to fine the company with a certain percentage of the annual revenue: in December 2021 Google LLC was given a turnover fine of 7.22 billion rubles, and on July 18 - 21.7 billion rubles.
In June, the Moscow Arbitration Court received a lawsuit to declare Google LLC, a Russian subsidiary of Google, bankrupt. The company itself started the procedure: the arrests of its accounts made its work in Russia impossible.
