Photo: World of Tanks / Steam
A Moscow court on Tuesday declared the creators of the popular online video game World of Tanks and its Russian counterpart Mir Tankov “extremists” and ordered the confiscation of assets belonging to Lesta Games, the St. Petersburg-based studio that publishes the game in Russia and Belarus.
According to the court, Viktor Kislyi, CEO of Wargaming — the original developer and publisher of World of Tanks — forms part of an “extremist organisation” whose operations will now be banned in Russia.
The same ruling applies to Malik Khatazhaev, who heads Lesta Games, which has run the game’s clone Mir Tankov in Russia and Belarus after Wargaming left those markets following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Lesta has operated the Russian and Belarusian assets formerly owned by Wargaming since April 2022, when Khatazhaev acquired them after Wargaming severed all ties with both countries by selling off its local assets shortly before a Belarusian government decision to designate the company as “unfriendly” and impose sanctions against it came into force.
Founded by Kislyi in Belarusian capital Minsk in 1998 and now headquartered in Nicosia, Cyprus, Wargaming in 2023 launched a charity fundraiser in support of Ukraine, donating over $1 million raised through the sale of Ukraine-themed in-game bundles to purchase mobile intensive care units for the country.
Although Lesta and Wargaming had formally split several months earlier and Lesta publicly distanced itself from the campaign, it faced accusations within Russia of covertly financing the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
According to state news agency RIA Novosti, the Russian Prosecutor General’s Office submitted several media articles as evidence in its case against Kislyi and Khatazhaev, with titles including: “How Wargaming Survived 25 Years — and Navigated the War in Ukraine” and “Wargaming Launches Charity Project Featuring Ukrainian Content in Games to Raise Funds for Ambulances”.
Responding to the court ruling on Tuesday, Lesta reiterated its support for Russia’s war in Ukraine, emphasising what it called its “significant contribution to the patriotic education of our country’s citizens” and publishing a series of posts on its Telegram channel detailing its charity work to support the Russian military.
It also clarified that the company itself had not been deemed extremist, meaning players would not be affected, and that it would be placed under the “temporary administration of the state, which would not be possible if it had been designated as extremist”.