Gamers who paint the Russian ‘Z’ symbol on their tanks in the popular online video game War Thunder could reportedly face up to three years in prison.
There have been an increasing number of tanks in the popular online game – played by 1.8 million people daily – spotted sporting the infamous Russian symbol seen on tanks invading Ukraine over the last six weeks.
But German states are reportedly legislating to make it a punishable offence to use the symbol in the wake of mounting evidence that Russia has committed war crimes in Ukraine.
Nearly two million active users log into War Thunder every day, with German daily Bild reporting that gamers who put the ‘Z’ on their virtual tanks could face legal consequences as Germany makes displaying it punishable with up to three years in prison for “condoning war crimes”.
The German daily said that the game is produced by a formerly Russian, now Hungarian, company called Gaijin Entertainment, which has about 150 employees and has been known to support anti-Ukrainian campaigns in the past.
After clashes between Ukrainian and Russian players reportedly erupted on the platform, the chat function was disabled.
The use of the notorious ‘Z’ symbol, on the other hand, appears to still be tolerated.
German states declared last week that showing the Russian ‘Z’ symbol used in the invasion of Ukraine will become a criminal offence.
Bild said that the company behind the game said that the ‘Z’ symbols are being created by the players themselves and were “not prohibited”.
It said it would only intervene if the German government explicitly bans the symbol.
Several federal states announced that there will be criminal consequences for members of the public using the ‘Z’, which has been called “a symbol of Putin’s fascism”.
The ‘Z’ was first seen on Russian military vehicles invading Ukraine before being adopted by supporters of the war, which is illegal under international law.
It has since been adopted by the Russian government as a propaganda tool to drum up support for what it still calls a “special military operation”, with the threat of up to 15years in prison for anybody who calls it “a war”.
Berlin’s Senator for the Interior, Digitalisation and Sport, Iris Spranger, 60, of the SPD (Social Democratic Party), said: “If the context of the war is created by using the white ‘Z’, as can be seen on the Russian military vehicles, then of course that means advocating the war of aggression.
“That would immediately be a punishable offence.”
The move appears to have been echoed for now by at least the German states of Lower Saxony and Bavaria, and there are reports that it is also being discussed by parliamentarians and officials in North Rhine-Westphalia, Baden-Wuerttemberg and Saxony-Anhalt.
The Bavarian Justice Minister, Georg Eisenreich, 51, of the CSU (Christian Social Union in Bavaria), said: “The Bavarian public prosecutors are taking consistent action against people who publicly approve of this war of aggression, which violates international law.”
He said that Russian President Vladimir Putin, 69, had launched a criminal war of aggression that was causing terrible suffering to the Ukrainian people, adding: “We do not accept crimes against international law being condoned.”
Eisenreich said: “Freedom of opinion is a great asset of our constitution. Everyone can express their opinion in Germany. But freedom of opinion ends where criminal law begins.”
North Rhine-Westphalia’s Refugee Minister, Joachim Stamp, 51, of the FDP (Free Democratic Party), said: “The ‘Z’ as a symbol of Putin’s fascism should be banned throughout Germany.”
Anyone seen using the letter ‘Z’ to support the Russian military’s actions in Ukraine will therefore reportedly be liable to prosecution.
The UN’s International Court of Justice has deemed Russia’s invasion of Ukraine illegal and has ordered Putin to remove his troops.
Former British Prime Ministers Sir John Major and Gordon Brown have called for the creation of a Nuremberg-style international tribunal to investigate Putin, former Prime Minister David Cameron has said “Putin belongs in a war crimes tribunal”, and current UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said “Vladimir Putin has already crossed the red line into barbarism”.
The tribunal proposal has also been signed by other figures, including Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba and American lawyer Benjamin Ferencz, who is 102 years old and who prosecuted Nazi war criminals during the Nuremberg Trials after Adolf Hitler’s defeat.
Ferencz obtained death sentences against members of SS mobile death squads called the Einsatzgruppen who committed atrocities in Eastern Europe between 1941 and 1945, killing 2 million people, 1.3 million of them Jews.
