The Tagansky District Court of Moscow satisfied the claim of the Prosecutor General's Office to recognize the owner of the game studio 'Lesta' Malik Khatazhaev and the owner of the company Wargaming Viktor Kisly as participants in an 'extremist organization'. The court also transferred 'Lesta's' shares to state revenue. Previously, the same court imposed an arrest on their property as part of preliminary protective measures.
The company 'Lesta Games' is valued at $1.5 billion, which means that the size of nationalized assets since the start of the war increased by almost 5% in a day, notes the 'Agency'*.
The Prosecutor General's Office filed the lawsuit, and the court satisfied the agency's demands after a month and a half.
TASS, citing a source, reported that Kisly and Khatazhaev were recognized as 'extremists' due to financing funds involved in purchasing equipment for the Armed Forces of Ukraine. However, what specific evidence of 'Lesta's' connection with Wargaming the Prosecutor General's Office presented is unknown: the case was considered in a closed format.
Today's decision of the Tagansky District Court of Moscow is one of the largest asset nationalization deals since the start of the war. At the same time, a very rare mechanism for confiscating property was chosen — through the article on 'extremist activity'. Until now, only one high-profile case of such nationalization was known — the assets of the founder of SPI Group Yuri Shefler.
As The Bell* writes, contenders for the nationalized 'Lesta' will quickly be found: in 2024, the company's revenue amounted to 35 billion rubles, net profit — 16 billion. At the same time, former creative director of Wargaming Sergey Burkatovsky, who was fired from the company after publicly supporting the Russian invasion, wrote at the end of May that Wargaming and Kisly still have the right to revoke 'Lesta's' licenses for games in the event of a raider takeover threat. According to Burkatovsky, in this case, the games will lose access to app stores and Steam, making them unprofitable.
Lawyer Alexandra Baeva, in a conversation with the 'Agency', said that by law, any participation in the activities of an 'extremist' organization will be considered a crime. However, in practice, Russian authorities may not prosecute ordinary users of structures recognized as 'extremist'. Baeva recalled the case with the company Meta** (Facebook, Instagram), which is also recognized as 'extremist', but users of its social networks in Russia are not prosecuted.
* Recognized in Russia as 'foreign agents'.
** Recognized in Russia as an 'extremist' organization.