Russian court ruling could see $129 million freeze on some of Google's French assets

Google faces temporary freeze on French assets

News By Ellen Jennings-Trace published 15 December 2025

(Image credit: Shutterstock)

• Google has had €110 million in French assets frozen by Russian authorities
• The move is a response to a reported illegal dividend payment in 2021
• Russian is cracking down on Western tech firms and restricting citizen's access

A Russian arbitration court ruling has found Google guilty of an illegal dividend payment, which has triggered a temporary freeze of around €110 million in Alphabet-owned French assets.

Official court orders show this measure was confirmed by an administrator of Google’s defunct Russian subsidiary, and the action presents as a rare attempt from Russian authorities to target western company assets through legal channels.

Google was reportedly guilty of an illegal dividend payment worth around 10 billion rubles (€110 million) in 2021, a Russian tribunal found.

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Temporary freeze

The firm can challenge this temporary freeze with an enforcement judge in the French courts. Russian authorities are attempting similar actions in Turkey, South Africa, and Spain.

TechRadar Pro has reached out to Google but did not immediately receive a response.

Google no longer operates in Russia, after its bank accounts were frozen by Russian authorities back in 2022 in the midst of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, making its operations untenable.

Currently, Russia is threatening to block all Google services in a ‘soft squeeze’ of US tech, contemplating an all-out ban on its services. This is ostensibly because the company stores user data outside of the country, representing a ‘serious threat’ to the country and its economy through the monitoring of Russian businesses. This could in turn be used to inform further sanctions against the already heavily sanctioned state.

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