Trophy tanks for Putin: A court has declared the developers of a popular online game extremists and allowed their assets to be seized for state use.

Tagansky Court of Moscow agreed with the arguments of the Prosecutor General's Office, which accused the developers of the game "World of Tanks" - one of the most popular computer games in Russia (known as World of Tanks until early 2022) - of extremism.

The Prosecutor General's Office claimed that the developers were supporting the Ukrainian Armed Forces, including raising money for humanitarian aid. Business owners answered, that they do not violate Russian laws and even showed letters signed by famous military personnel who thanked them “for their assistance to the participants of the special military operation.”

Now the companies are listed as extremist and terrorist organizations, and all their assets have been transferred to the state. And the online game "World of Tanks" is under threat of being shut down in Russia (as is another popular game, "World of Ships"). 

At the same time, the State Duma deputy Anton Gorelkin believes that playing a product of an extremist organization will not affect users in any way.

“They cannot be accused of supporting the Ukrainian Armed Forces or extremism for making in-game purchases, пишет deputy. — The assets will soon come under state control and will then most likely be transferred to a specialized Russian company.”