Modern Warfare 2 banned / altered in Russia

After having seen the political interruptions in Modern Warfare 2 by the Australian, German, French and Dutch government, this time it is Russia not being too happy about the latest release of the Infinity Ward/Activision game. It comes as no surprise that Russia has a problem with the way its nationals are portrayed in the fourth MW2 mission "No Russian". Not only that but in general Russia is not too pleased that it has often been used as story line material especially when invasions and terrorist attacks are involved.

Spoiler alert

In the "No Russian" mission you play an American infiltrated in a Russian terrorist group lead by Makarov. As member of this group you take part in a massacre on a Russian airfield. The attack is interpretated by the Russians as an American attack on their home country after which they release a full scale assault on American soil. This particular "No Russian" mission has been the main reason why the game is rated 18+ and which was frowned upon by a lot of European governments, saying that this leads to more game related violence by teens.

For now every console version of Modern Warfare 2 is taken from the shelves in Russia. The government is now awaiting the censored version, without the specific mission, which should be ready within one month. In addition Infinity Ward has released a patch (PC/Steam) for the Russian version, which completely removes the mission from the game. For people from Russia who would still like to play the game as it was originally intended, simply buy the EU/US version of the game.