Western commentators have generally lauded Google’s efforts related to the invasion.

A March 1 company blog post by Google global affairs chief Kent Walker stated, “Our teams are working around the clock to support people in Ukraine through our products, defend against cybersecurity threats, surface high-quality, reliable information.” Walker added that Google had “paused the vast majority of our commercial activities in Russia,” including sales to Russian advertisers, sales of advertising directed at Russian YouTube viewers, sign-ups for Google Cloud in Russia, and “payments functionality for most of our services.” And like several other Silicon Valley titans, it also implemented new policies to stifle the Kremlin’s ability to propagandize.

Like many other American companies, Google swiftly declared its support of Ukraine and opposition to the Russian invasion after the attack began. The Kremlin calls the war a “special military operation,” and its internet censorship board has reportedly threatened to block websites that use terms like “invasion.” This is widely believed to include referring to Russia’s assault on Ukraine as a war or invasion, given that the Kremlin had previously drawn a hard line against such terms.

The censorship law, signed by Russian President Vladimir Putin on March 4, created harsh criminal penalties of up to 15 years in prison for disseminating so-called false information about the Russian military. The internal memo helps explain why some Google webpages, including an advertising policy and video help document found by The Intercept, use euphemistic terms like “emergency in Ukraine” in their Russian version but “war in Ukraine” in the English version.

Google english to russian translation