Marking oneself as anti-war in that kind of environment is an act of profound courage and incredible risk. The Russian political scientist and anti-war activist Greg Yudin described this system as one that generates "incredible contempt and disdain for all kinds of politics" among Russians, who are "completely certain that there is no possible way to change anything through politics, that no change is possible in general". The Russian state has taken a hard line against any and all internal protest against its so-called " special military operation" in Ukraine, arresting thousands of protestors, threatening years in prison camps over anti-war social media posts, and charging a political opposition figure with treason for "spreading disinformation" about the Russian army.Įven when Russia isn't at war, the country maintains a deeply alienating political system that has entrenched power among a cabal of lackeys and oligarchs for decades. On the other hand, whether it's headquartered in Cyprus or not, Mundfish is a studio with Russian roots and Russian staff (with Russian family and Russian friends), as a 2019 article documenting a tour of its Moscow office will attest. A video from a Ukrainian YouTuber titled " Please, Don't Buy Atomic Heart"-which has managed to accrue nearly 2 million views in just over a week-highlighted the absurdity of a game based around an alt-history USSR claiming it doesn't "comment on politics," calling it "absolute nonsense" and "one step away from the types of gamers who say 'I don't like politics in my videogames' and then immediately open up Fallout".
Mundfish's statements that it was only interested in "getting Atomic Heart into the hands of gamers everywhere," or that it was " For players who just want to play," struck some people as, at best, a marketing attempt to redirect the conversation surrounding its game or, at worst, some kind of tacit support for the actions of its original home country. "We're for all the good things and against all the bad ones" Sergey Mohov mocks Mundfish's statement
Mundfish's reticence to even name the war in question sparked outrage, summed up by tweets from game designer Sergey Mohov, who mocked Mundfish's position as "We're for all the good things and against all the bad ones," lambasting the studio for "having the unbelievable privilege to have this kind of position". It was not the statement of support for Ukrainian independence that some were hoping for.
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