San Francisco: Google has discovered Russian operatives spent tens of thousands of dollars on ads on YouTube, Gmail, Google search and other products.

The ads do not appear to be from the same Kremlin-affiliated entity that bought ads on Facebook, which may indicate a broader Russian online disinformation effort. Google runs the world's largest online advertising business and YouTube is the world's largest online video site.

The Silicon Valley giant has found that tens of thousands of dollars were spent on ads by Russian agents who aimed to spread disinformation across Google's many products, which include YouTube, as well as advertising associated with Google search, Gmail, and the company's DoubleClick ad network, the people said, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss matters that have not been made public.

Google previously downplayed the problem of Russian meddling on its platforms. Last month, Google spokeswoman Andrea Faville told The Washington Post that the company is "always monitoring for abuse or violations of our policies and we've seen no evidence this type of ad campaign was run on our platforms."