World of Tanks’ Russian operator Lesta Games, which was formerly owned by Wargaming, is being targeted by the Russian government over claims that the maker of various long-running, and highly popular war-sim titles, has been involved in extremist activities.
According to a report from RIA.ru (owned by the Russian state), which has been machine-translated by a user on Resetera, the Prosecutor General’s office in Russia has stepped in to “prohibit the activities” of Wargaming.net (thanks VGC).
“The Prosecutor General’s Office has asked Moscow’s Tagansky District Court to prohibit the activities of the association consisting of Lesta owner Malik Khatazhaev and Wargaming.net owner Viktor Kisly, and to collect one hundred percent of Lesta’s shares as state revenue, according to court documents available to RIA Novosti.”
Lesta, which was owned by Wargaming up until 2022, owns all rights to the popular game in Russia after the latter pulled out of Russia and Belarus following the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Its three former offices are all managed by Lesta. The report names both Wargaming and Lesta’s owners, despite the fact there is technically two versions of the game — the Russian one, and the one the rest of the world gets.
Russian State Media claims that the games and their developer are, in fact, some sort of front for underground activities, such as raising money for an ambulance.
Wargaming ran this campaign back in 2023 across all of its games, which Lesta appears to have nothing to do with.
“The Prosecutor General’s Office believes that Kislyi and Khatazhayev are part of an association that carries out extremist activities. The plaintiff attached to the lawsuit publications with the headlines “The most military game World of Tanks against Russia’s special operation”, “How Wargaming survived 25 years – and dealt with the war in Ukraine”, “Wargaming launched a charity project with Ukrainian content in games to raise money for ambulances”
Lesta Games has responded to the report on Telegram (via RBC), saying that “”We have not violated anything and we have nothing to fear” and that “the problem is being solved.”
As well as withdrawing from Russia, Wargaming let go of its creative director in 2022 for his support of Russia’s operations and has even redesigned aspects of its promo materials and games to soften their imagery.
The case as brought by the Prosecutor General is set to go ahead in May; we’ll follow up on the case to see how it all falls out.
