Is it true that Russia fined Google a record amount? Will Marine Le Pen go to prison as part of her trial and that of the RN? The students of Turgot college in Denain question us and we answer them with the franceinfo journalists.
A fine that will never be paid
Kenzo heard “talk about the Google fine of 20 billion million billion dollars and that caught my attention because I find this sum enormous“and Maely wonders”if it’s true, are they really going to pay and especially why”, finally Kenzo asks “if they don’t pay, what will happen“.
Sylvain Tronchet, Radio France correspondent in Moscow, Russia, replies that it’s true, the Russian government has indeed imposed a fine of 36 zeros on Google! An astronomical sum greater than the world GDP or even the stock market value of Google. “This fine is above all symbolic” explains Sylvain Tronchet “and Google will never pay it and the Russian government knows this perfectly well.“
Now why this fine? Firstly, because Russia criticizes Google and in particular YouTube for broadcasting content that goes against the story of the war in Ukraine that it has been telling since the start of the conflict. Videos that tell what the Russian army is doing in Ukraine and that Vladimir Putin would like to keep secret. Sylvain Tronchet specifies that “the government prohibits the dissemination of certain information, which consists of recounting the fact that Russian bombings have caused civilian deaths, that people have been bombed in their homes, in their apartments by the Russian army and that, it is completely forbidden to say it in Russia.“
The other reason for this fine is that “Russia accuses Google of having removed the broadcasting of Russian television channels on YouTube, in particular of the first Russian television channel called Pervy Canal, a government channel which is controlled by the government.” Sylvain Tronchet explains that “YouTube and Google rightly considered that this channel relayed Russian propaganda and a certain amount of false information, so they removed this channel from broadcast on YouTube.”
Finally the correspondent in Moscow concludes that “The real message to understand behind this fine is ‘Google, Youtube, never come back to Russia, because if you come back, this is what you will be forced to pay.’“
What does Marine Le Pen risk in the context of her trial and that of the RN?
Kellia asks us about the trial of the RN and Marine Le Pen, because she heard it said on Tiktok “that Marine Le Pen was going to get two years in prison for racism.”
Pierrick Bonno, journalist in the political service of franceinfo who followed part of this trial, responds to Kellia. He tells her that “no, this trial is not at all a trial for racism“, he specifies that the National Rally of the time, therefore the National Front and 24 other defendants, including Marine Le Pen are on trial”for having diverted public money that comes from the European Union to finance activities and personnel of the political party in France.”
You should know that an MEP, like a national MEP, receives an envelope every month to be able to reimburse their mandate expenses and to be able to pay collaborators.
Pierrick Bonno therefore explains that what Marine Le Pen is accused of today, “it is to have redirected this money, not to employ people who worked for the European Parliament and for her as an MEP, but who actually worked for the political party in France and that is illegal.“
What does Marine Le Pen risk in this trial? According to Kellia “two years in prison” and Sidahmed wonder about the reality of this sentence, he heard that “Marine Le Pen could go to prison“. Pierrick Bonno replies that it is unlikely “that Marine Le Pen will go to prison”. Why? Pierrick Bonno explains that “what we often see is that politicians do not go to prison, we put an electronic bracelet on them possibly to prevent them, for example from leaving France, but in reality two years in prison. for a politician, that does not mean that he will generally go to prison.“
And the other issue of this trial is that Marine Le Pen also risks a five-year ineligibility sentence. In other words, the impossibility for her to run in the next elections. We will know the result of this trial on March 31.
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