Google Reportedly Restricts Services in Russia

Russian users have reported issues while attempting to register a Google account with a Russian phone number.

According to Russian state news agency TASS on Monday, users were presented with an error message that said “This number cannot be used for confirmation” when attempting to add a phone number with the Russian +7 country code.

TASS said that using a virtual private network (VPN), which masks the user’s location, did not solve the issue, meaning it’s likely that Google imposed the restriction specifically on users with Russian phone numbers.

Ukrainian news outlet dev.ua said the issue could be related to the US sanctions on information technology (IT) service provisions in Russia, introduced in June and effective starting Sept. 12.

As Kyiv Post reported in June, the ban sought to limit the provision of IT services and support to “any person in the Russian Federation” and not limited to state-affiliated companies.

The US Department of Treasury, announcing its latest sanction efforts at the time, said the goal was to “restrict the ability of [the] Russian military-industrial base to take advantage of certain US software and [IT] services” and “disrupt the Russian military-industrial base’s reliance on foreign IT [systems].”

However, the Washington agency added that certain telecommunications concerning humanitarian causes, and free information flow could be exempted under General Licenses 6D and 25D as the US “strongly supports the free flow of information and communications globally.”

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The souring relationship between Google and the Kremlin could’ve played a role as well.

In August, Kyiv Post reported conflicting accounts from Russian lawmakers on Google’s potential ban in Russia that arose from disputes over content moderation, with the Kremlin throttling access speed to YouTube due to Google’s decision not to reinstate banned pro-Russian content.

On Aug. 12, advertising service Google AdSense shut down its operations in Russia, where content creators would “no longer be able to receive monetization income.”

Earlier, in March, the Kremlin fined Google for not restricting access to some prohibited content on YouTube.