Russia’s government threatened to impose hefty fines on global technology companies including Facebook and Google if it detects breaches of domestic laws, Reuters reported.

In a consultation on proposals to overhaul web legislation, the administration of President Vladimir Putin proposed fining companies up to 1 per cent of revenue generated in Russia, sources told the news agency. A copy of the plan has already been sent to industry players for feedback.

The proposal states a fine could be levied more than once on the same company for every time it is found to have committed a violation.

Russia already has laws that require search engines to filter results and messaging services to share enycrption keys.

However, these laws allow for fines amounting to a few thousand dollars, which does not act as a deterrent. While the laws also allow the offending online services to be blocked, in many cases they can still be accessed via a virtual private network.

There are also some technical issues associated with blocking services, which Russia encountered when IP addresses owned by Google and Amazon were caught up in a clampdown on messaging app Telegram.

Google’s Russian unit generated revenue of around $687 million in 2017 and being fined 1 per cent on this would be a “significant amount,” a source said. This would compare with the maximum $10,595 fine the search giant could face under current laws, even if a case is ongoing.

The source added that levying a fine on a company that does not have a legal entity in the country could make things complicated.

Facebook has not moved servers containing its Russian users’ data to Russia, three years after a law was passed requiring the move: the company said it is in discussion with authorities.