Russia's telecom watchdog, Roskomnadzor, has launched an administrative case against Google as the IT giant refuses to connect its search engine to the federal database of banned websites.

The case will be considered in December by Roskomnadzor itself as the agency has the authority to issue fines without going to court.

The new law, which came into force in October, obliges all operators of search engines to exclude terrorist, extremist and other illegal websites from their search results.

To do so, they must link up with a database of around 120,000 banned URLs, compiled by the Russian authorities.

Google and Roskomnadzor held several meetings, in November, in an attempt to resolve the situation, but the search engine still doesn't filter the illegal content, the watchdog said.

The tech giant reportedly filed a letter in which it outlined what prevents it from complying with Russian law, but its contents remain undisclosed.

Google may face a penalty of between 500,000 and 700,000 rubles ($7,500 and $10,500) for the wrongdoing, the watchdog said.

The fine doesn't seem too painful, considering that Alphabet holding company, which Google is part of, earned almost $110 billion last year.

If the regulatory changes outlined in the article above go into effect, its fines will rise considerably.

In September, Roskomnadzor mulled blocking Facebook in Russia as the company violated the law which bans the storing of Russian citizens' personal data on servers located outside the country.

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The French government cast blame for the unruly protests on far-right politician Marine Le Pen, claiming she egged them on.

But Le Pen rejected that accusation saying she had "never called for any violence whatsoever" and in turn accused the government of "organising the tension" and seeking to make her a scapegoat.

Meanwhile, opposition parties on both the right and left accused the government of trying to reduce the protests to just the sporadic scenes of violence, and turning a deaf ear to the demonstrators' grievances.

Jean-Luc Melenchon, leader of the radical left France Unbowed party who attended a separate march Saturday protesting violence against women, tweeted that the action on the streets was "a mass protest of the people" which signalled "the end for [interior minister] Castaner".

Rural frustrations

A week ago, two people died and over 750 people, including 136 police officers, were injured in sometimes violent demonstrations that have shone a light on frustrations in many rural areas and small towns of France.

The "yellow vests" hail overwhelmingly from non-urban areas of France. They feel overlooked and penalised by policies they see as being pushed through by elitist politicians in Paris.

Former investment banker Macron was elected on a pledge to put more money in workers' pockets. But the effects of his pro-business reforms on unemployment and purchasing power have been limited so far.

Many of the often low-income "yellow vest" protesters are particularly incensed at his decision to hike anti-pollution taxes on diesel, while scrapping a wealth tax on the rich.

"I'm not just fighting against the price of fuel. It's about tax, what we pay," protester Catherine Marguier told AFP near the village of La Gravelle in northwest France.

Meanwhile, in a separate protest in the southern city of Marseille, police fired teargas at bottle-throwing demonstrators upset by the "gentrification" renovation work on the town's biggest square. Around 1,200 demonstrators took part and two were arrested.

'Gap between rich and poor'

Revolts against taxes have been a feature of French public life for centuries. Citizens still pay some of the highest in Europe as a percentage of GDP, and fuel-price protests are a common modern occurrence.

Previous rounds pitting the government against drivers took place in 1995, 2000, 2004, and 2008, often when tax increases coincided with high oil prices -- as they have this year.

A poll by the Odoxa research group for Le Figaro newspaper this week found that 77 percent of respondents described it as "justified".

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