Google, represented by King & Spalding, filed three breach-of-contract countersuits against Russian media outlets to enjoin them from enforcing a Russian court judgment to unblock their Google accounts and YouTube channels in violation of sanctions passed after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The suits were filed on Aug. 19 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California against TV-Novosti, which operates the Russian government-funded TV network RT; media company NO Fond Pravoslavnogo Televideniya (NFPT), which distributes a TV channel associated with the Russian Orthodox Church; and NAO Tsargrad Media (Tsargrad), a TV station owned by Russian oligarch Konstantin Malofeyev, who was charged by the U.S. Department of Justice in April 2022 with violating U.S. sanctions “arising from the 2014 Russian undermining of democratic processes and institutions in Ukraine.”