In Australia, a Russian game about the events of the

The Russian computer game "Gostomel Bogatyrs", dedicated to the events of February–March 2022 and the battles for the airport near Kiev, has been declared illegal to distribute in Australia. This was reported to Izvestia on April 17 by developers from the studio "Playing Cats".

According to them, the reason was the lack of an official classification for the project, which is mandatory for the distribution of digital content in the country. Without this, digital products cannot be legally distributed in the country's market.

According to the authors, they have not previously encountered classification requirements in Australia for their projects and are not aware of similar cases among colleagues. The studio admits that the attention to the game could have been caused by its theme, but there is no official confirmation of this.

"No other products have received complaints from any of our friends about the "lack of official classification in Australia." Well, that is, there is a "selective application of the law." Someone drew attention to the game and applied the current legal framework to remove this particular project," studio head Vitaly Shutov explained in an interview with Izvestia.

He also noted that he does not plan to challenge the decision. According to the studio, the share of sales in Australia was about 1.3% of the total, which makes further legal steps economically impractical.

Gostomel Bogatyrs is a story—oriented game in which the events around the airport battles are interpreted from the point of view of the Russian participants. The project combines elements of action and tactical management, offering the player to participate in key episodes of the beginning of the conflict. In Ukraine, a number of public activists and users called for its boycott, pointing to a political interpretation of the events.

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Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on March 11 that all statements about the abolition of Russian culture are common loudmouthed. The diplomat stressed that attempts to oppress and ban Russian culture, which are being undertaken by some Western countries, are futile.