Google still blocks Russia-based advertisers, a pause dating to March 2022

Two notices about Russia appeared at the top of a Google Merchant Center help page, and Search Engine Roundtable reported today that Google had “posted a new message” pausing ads for advertisers based in Russia. The wording of both notices, however, matches statements Google first published in March 2022, and Google’s own policy documentation dates the global pause for Russia-based advertisers to March 10, 2022. No new announcement from Google about Russia could be found on its Google Ads or Merchant Center announcement pages on October 22, 2026.

In Short

A website that tracks Google reported that Google had just stopped ads from Russian advertisers, because warning boxes showed up on a Google help page. The same words were already used by Google in March 2022, when it stopped showing ads to people in Russia and then stopped Russian advertisers from buying ads anywhere. So the rule is not new: what changed is that the old warning boxes appeared on help pages again, and nothing…