A Moscow court slammed Google with an unprecedented substantial fine on Friday for repeatedly failing to remove illegal content as part of Russian authorities’ attempts to pile pressure on foreign tech giants.

The fine amounted to 7.2 billion rubles ($98 million), the court's press service said on Telegram. 

Russia has recently imposed hefty fines on the world's biggest tech companies, accusing them of not moderating their content properly and meddling in the country's affairs.

However, the fines imposed on other tech giants like Meta (Facebook), Twitter, Google, and others were in tens of millions of rubles, not billions.

Interfax news agency reported that the fine was calculated as per Google's annual earnings.

Meta, which has a hearing in court later today on the same charges, has also been threatened with a revenue-based fine.