MOSCOW: The Tagansky District Court of Moscow banned operations of Lesta company, the publisher of the World of Tanks and World of Warshi...
MOSCOW: The Tagansky District Court of Moscow banned operations of Lesta company, the publisher of the World of Tanks and World of Warships computer games, and forfeited its assets in favor of Russia.
This is the first incident related to the court prohibition for the video games publisher. TASS collects key details of the situation.
Court judgment
The Tagansky District Court of Moscow banned operations of Lesta company and forfeited its assets in favor of Russia. Lesta is the publisher of the World of Tanks and World of Warships computer games. The decision comes into force immediately. This is the first incident related to the court prohibition for the video games publisher.
The court decision to ban operations of Lesta, Lesta Games Agency, Lesta Games Moscow and businessmen Viktor Kisly and Malik Khatazhaev is the basis for their inclusion into the register of extremists and terrorists by the Russian Federal Financial Monitoring Service.
The Tagansky Court’s decision in the Lesta case does not extend to the group of companies, its counterparties and clients, including users of computer games, an informed source told TASS. Companies are functioning normally and technical support is being provided to users.
Viktor Kisly, the beneficiary of the Wargaming international corporation for computer games development, and Malik Khatazhaev, the owner of the Lesta group of companies, recognized as extremists due to financing of funds buying the equipment for the Ukrainian army, do not have rights to Lesta group anymore, the informed source said.
Lesta will file a complaint against the court decision on the ban and forfeiture of assets, counsel of the company Roman Makarov told TASS.
Grievances
The Russian Office of General Prosecutor earlier filed an action against Kisly, Khatazhaev, Lesta and Lesta Games Agency to prohibit their operations in view of their extremist activity in the form of support for the Ukrainian army. Grievances of the Office of the General Prosecutor are related to the Hong Kong-based offshore of the company, through which funds were transferred for needs of the Ukrainian army, law enforcement authorities told TASS.
About companies
Lesta is the oldest video studio in modern Russia. The company merged with Wargaming in 2011 to create World of Tanks and World of Battleships computer games. The company made the split in 2022. Wargaming announced their support of Ukraine and left the Russian market. Lesta declared support of Russian authorities and its focus on the Russian and Belarusian markets.
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