Based on, charitably, very little evidence.
Russia has come down hard on Lesta Games (via Meduza), the domestic company that inherited local rights to World of Tanks (or Mir Tankov, as it’s known locally) after its original dev, Wargaming, exited Belarus and Russia in protest of the latter’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
Wargaming, which has a studio in Kyiv, has since gone on to launch more than a few charitable initiatives in support of Ukraine. Most notably, it raised over a million dollars for the “acquisition of C-type ambulances” via WargamingUnited, a set of Ukraine-themed in-game bundles whose revenue went to medical aid via United24, Ukraine’s government-run platform for charitable donations. Wargaming also fired creative director Sergey Burkatovskiy, who voiced support for Russia’s invasion in its immediate aftermath.
All of which would be wildly illegal in Russia itself, where anti-war and pro-Ukraine sentiment is strictly repressed. That’s why Lesta has repeatedly and emphatically stressed its complete separation from Wargaming in the years since the invasion—a state of affairs Wargaming itself has also confirmed.
That only delayed the inevitable, though: a Moscow court froze Lesta’s assets when the Russian Prosecutor General’s Office accused the company of financing the Ukrainian military and alleged that its cofounder, Malik Khatazhaev, was part of an “extremist group” alongside Wargaming CEO Viktor Kisly. The Prosecutor General’s Office cited reports about Wargaming’s charitable initiative as ‘evidence’ for the charge.
Lesta attempted to downplay things, and Khatazhaev himself took to Telegram to express disbelief at the charge, repeating for the umpteenth time that Lesta and Wargaming have no relationship and that he has only ever been a supporter of the Russian state: “I’ve lived to an old age and suddenly being a patriot makes me an extremist.”
It didn’t work. As of June 3, a Moscow court granted the Prosecutor General’s request to designate Khatazhaev and Kisly extremists, as well as allowing the government to seize—in essence—the entire studio and everything that belongs to it. The state has yet to offer any insight as to what it intends to do with these assets, but the prevailing sentiment among Russian World of Tanks players is that they are likely destined to end up in the hands of VK, a major Russian tech firm with strong ties to the state.
Meanwhile, Russian officials are attempting to assure World of Tanks players that they won’t end up caught in this net for spending money on the game. Anton Gorelkin, deputy chairman of the Duma’s Information Technology Committee, posted on Telegram that “Users of World of Tanks, World of Warships, and other products from Lesta Game have nothing to worry about. They cannot be accused of supporting the AFU [Armed Forces of Ukraine] or extremism for making in-game purchases.” Gorelkin concluded the post by assuring readers that “the assets of Lesta Games will soon come under state control and then, most likely, they will be handed over to a specialised Russian company”.
Russia and Belarus likely regret that Wargaming slipped the net in the aftermath of the invasion of Ukraine—it was the largest games studio in Belarus and valued at over a billion dollars in 2016. In retaliation for its leaving, Belarus’ KGB added Wargaming’s chief bizdev officer Nikolai Katselapov to its official terrorist list in 2022.
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