Russia demands Google restore access to its media YouTube channels in Ukraine

Fuck Putin.

Sergei can foot enough cash to finance the entire war. Together with Google he has far more resources than that.

He and Larry have control over Google with an interesting incorporation clause that allows them to basically override the board and make decisions for reasons other than money.

AFAIK, if he got mad enough (say, something happened to his family) Google can volunteer to help help Ukraine procure weapons (providing a channel), fund them [with or without private cash from the founders], and go all in.

Pepsi was once the 6th largest military in the world, and they are a fraction of Google in clout, cash, and connections.

(And there is precedent - Rockerfeller once told FDR that he could fund an army larger than FDR's, in the infamous Wall Street Putsch)

He also is friends with Sundar, Elon and Richard etc. The clique of the "super rich" have some 70% of all U.S. money, and over 10% of all the world's wealth.

While I don't see that happening, this is war. Nothing should be taken off the table. (Not comparable, but an example: no one expected BP to walk away from a 25B deal till yesterday.)

EDIT: Aside for that, Goog has engineers that would have a field day hacking into Russian infrastructure, government and military. Especially considering that they can basically MITM anything; between their DNS, their certs, Android, Chrome, the fact that all their software has a silent process always running and able to apply updates, etc.

In addition, any of these steps would be loudly applauded, and he could probably parley that into government cash, goodwill, favors etc.

In fact, the more I think about it, the less far fetched this sounds. I highly doubt Putin will risk starting up with Brinn.

The Pepsi armada was the result of one of the trades with the Soviet Union. Since the Soviets didn't have internationally valid currency, they paid Pepsi with 20 ships... Pepsi did not operate them, they sold them for scrap. Interestingly, the previous trade had Pepsi selling Stolichnaya vodka in the US...