A Moscow court said that Alphabet Inc’s Google had been fined ₽15 million (2.07 billion crores) for repeated failures to comply with Russian laws requiring tech companies to localise user data on Thursday.

Russia has slapped multiple fines on foreign tech companies in recent years for a series of infringements, which critics say is an attempt by Moscow to tighten its grip on the internet.

Russia has restricted access to Twitter and Meta’s flagship social networks, Facebook and Instagram, but despite the pressure, Google and its YouTube video hosting services remain available. Moscow is particularly opposed to YouTube’s handling of Russian media, which it has blocked. But Anton Gorelkin, deputy director of the State Duma’s Information Policy Committee, said the American company was not yet at risk of the same fate. They are conducting information warfare against Russia,” Gorelkin told reporters at the St Petersburg International Economic Forum.

The Tagansky District Court in Moscow said it had fined Google for its repeated failure to store personal data of Russian users in a database on Russian soil. Google pulled some employees out of Russia after Moscow sent troops to Ukraine in late February.

Photo-sharing app LikeMe was fined ₽1.5 million (about 20,70,972 crore) for the first violation. LikeMe could not be reached for comment. Google’s ability to pay could be hampered as its Russian subsidiary announced plans to file for bankruptcy in May after authorities seized its bank accounts. Gorelkin said Google couldn’t have been a global leader without doing business in China, noting that Yandex (often referred to as Russia’s answer to Google) was a viable competitor.