By Olha Hembik | 2025-11-10

WARSAW -- You're not on a battlefield. You're on your couch -- headset on, controller in hand -- lost in the glow of a video game. But somewhere between the explosions and missions, the Kremlin may already have joined your party.

Propaganda disguised as gameplay doesn't wave a flag or issue commands. It seeps in through storylines, character design and distorted histories, turning entertainment into quiet persuasion.

Few players expect to find hidden messages or caricatured enemies in their favorite first-person shooters, but they're there, says Lingva Lexa, a Kyiv-based nonprofit that conducts open-source investigations of war crimes and tracks online hate speech.

On October 8, Lingva Lexa released a report titled "A New Weapon in the Shadows: How the Kremlin Uses Video Games for War Propaganda." The research details how Moscow exploits video games to shape culture, militarize young people and spread its war narratives across the digital world.

Kremlin's games

Russia's gaming industry is becoming a tool of state propaganda, using government funding and regulations to produce "correct" games and shape audiences, Anna Vishnyakova, an international criminal lawyer and founder of Lingva Lexa, told Kontur.

She said the Kremlin's strategy targets children from an early age, starting with simple games and youth movements in elementary school and continuing into adolescence through radicalized online communities. Propaganda, Vishnyakova noted, spreads both "from above" through state institutions and grants, and "horizontally" through gaming communities, streams and clans.

Among the games identified are Squad 22: ZOV, promoted by the Russian army as a training tool for cadets, and Best in Hell, which glorifies the Wagner mercenary group. Researchers also found propaganda themes in Dota 2, Runeterra, Free Fire, PUBG Mobile and World of Tanks Blitz.

The Kremlin uses gaming to normalize militarism and foster admiration for soldiers in its "special military operation." Vishnyakova said the Young Army movement recruits children as young as 8 and organizes esports tournaments for teens, blending ideology with play.

At the Peresvet military-patriotic club, founded by the Sretensky Cossack community, children used Squad 22: ZOV as a training aid to learn combat tactics and coordination.

Organizers said the training "not only contributed to the development of intellectual skills, but also helped in understanding how Russian soldiers operate in the zone of the special military operation."

Gaming aggression and indoctrination

Propagandists exploit the insecurities and identity-seeking typical of adolescence to build online spaces where adopting an ideology becomes the price of belonging, said Vishnyakova.

She points to PMC Kinder, a Minecraft community for children and teens whose members take part in combat simulations that normalize a dehumanized view of enemies and militarized culture.

Vladislav, a sixth-grader at the First Ukrainian School in Warsaw, said he encounters Russian propaganda every time he plays Roblox, an online platform where users can create and share their own games. He says he recognizes Russian-made games by their cover art, which shows Ukraine without Crimea, and by usernames decorated with the letters Z, O and V.

Lingva Lexa researchers found that users generate "Z-content" themselves -- in usernames, avatars, slogans and memes that glorify Russian soldiers and spread hostile narratives toward Ukrainians. In occupied territories, the group said, such games have become tools of ideological pressure on local youth.

Vishnyakova noted that children often see games as safe spaces, making them more receptive to hidden messages. She cited cases where Russian intelligence services created mobile games that lured Ukrainian children into completing "intelligence-gathering quests" disguised as play.

After Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine and its isolation from Western markets, the country's video game industry became a controlled channel for official ideology, according to Lingva Lexa. Games now echo state narratives about "liberation missions," "the fight against Nazism" and "historical unity."

New projects reportedly follow Kremlin directives on themes and characters. The Russian government plans to invest up to $50 billion by 2030 in developing domestic studios. The Internet Development Institute (IDI) has already distributed billions of rubles to fund game production, including 1.57 billion RUB (about $19.4 million) in 2024 for titles expected in 2025–26.

Lingva Lexa cited IDI head Alexey Goreslavsky, who said at the Saint Petersburg International Economic Forum that the agency will invest about 3.4 billion RUB (some $42 million) from 2025 to 2027 to expand the industry. Russia's gaming market, estimated at 170 billion to 200 billion RUB ($2.1 billion to $2.5 billion), could reach 237 billion ($2.9 billion) by 2030.

Symbols of resistance

Video game propaganda can be countered through stronger media and gaming literacy programs, Igor, a Kyiv-based open-source intelligence analyst, told Kontur. He urged governments to use diplomacy to promote international standards for platform accountability and share data on games spreading propaganda.

Platform owners and developers, he added, should take greater responsibility for their content by banning state propaganda and glorification of war crimes, and by publishing regular moderation reports.

Lingva Lexa recommends supporting games that promote counter-narratives, such as S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl, which has become a symbol of Ukrainian cultural resistance.

After Russia's full-scale invasion, developer GSC Game World ended sales in Russia, removed Russian localization and endured cyberattacks and disinformation campaigns, Vishnyakova said.

Another example is Glory to the Heroes, a tactical shooter in development that presents the war from a Ukrainian perspective and "serves as a counterweight to Russian propaganda games that try to justify aggression."