of Wagner Mercenaries (opens in new tab)a kind of Russian black water (opens in new tab), is infamous. Founded by catering tycoon, oligarch and Putin ally Evgeny Prigozhin, the mercenary gang has plugged a hole in Russia’s war machine by making up for the lack of recruits in Russia’s regular army.Operating in Syria, Africa and Ukraine (many of its fighters have been pulled from Russian prisons, the practice of which ends the group Announced today only (opens in new tab)),and suspected of war crimes (opens in new tab) by multiple international organizations. In short, we’re not the kind of institution that hosts video game streams, but we’re here.
of VKontakte stream from last weekend (opens in new tab), GrishaPutin, the Russian streamer appeared to be playing a four-hour multiplayer match of Hearts of Iron 4 from the Wagner Group building in St. Petersburg. In a mysteriously empty Wagner office, a streamer in full military uniform (he says he’s 16) joins more than 20 other online players of his, essentially a third-world adventure. played a great war. In modern times, leaders like Vladimir Putin have replaced the traditional Axis and Allied Heads of State in HOI4.
It’s a puzzling sight, and after first seeing the story reddit (opens in new tab), I was convinced that Grisha Putin must have rigged some sort of green screen to emulate the appearance of the headquarters behind Wagner. But it’s not. On multiple occasions, the streamer picks up his webcam to show off other parts of his office, and finally moves into the background to remove his military uniform and be reflected in the back glass. throughout.
In some of the streams I’ve seen, GrishaPutin doesn’t say much about how she came to stream grand strategy games from the headquarters of one of the world’s most notorious militias, but it shouldn’t be too hard. Tie together.He specifically shouted out Anna Zamarayeva, Wagner’s “curator for work with the media and bloggers” at one point, and the Russian press Ostrozno, reported by Novosti (opens in new tab) GrishaPutin’s mother said he decided to go on his own and was told, “Cool! Let’s do it!”
That shouldn’t be too surprising. Grishaputin used to play alongside some pretty popular western streamers before Russia invaded Ukraine (they have since denied him (opens in new tab)) claims to be a member of the Youth Division of United Russia (the country’s ruling party). And his previous streams and videos have taken the form of an excellent display of his patriotism.
His past videos include several of him in a period-appropriate Soviet military uniform and cosplaying his side playing in-game to mark the anniversary of an important event in Russian history. I’m not really into deconstructing teenage patchwork ideology, but I’m a little confused by the video celebrating Vladimir Lenin’s 152nd birthday. Vladimir Putin accused (opens in new tab) To “separate and detach what was historically Russian land” and create an independent Ukraine. His online persona, while nostalgic for the international communist project, reflects an incredibly confusing hodgepodge of ideologies coming from people in a very right-wing and reactionary nation.
As you learn about streams, some Paradox staff tried to figure it out (opens in new tab) Where the stream was hosted and was probably about to shut down. However, GrishaPutin could not do anything because he had already been banned from Twitch and was streaming on the Russian social his network VKontakte.
I have reached out to Paradox for comment regarding this event. If we get a response, we will update this article.
As for the stream, everything was immediately hit with a nuclear hit, eventually ending in peace talks between the Russian side and “Donald Trump” played by a member of the other team. I think the point of was not to show the devastating futility of wars that must always end with negotiation. Instead, everything was done in a transnational spirit of nihilistic defiance. It’s a sort of “we don’t care what you think about us” cynicism, aimed at strengthening unity at home rather than gaining observers abroad.
The stream doesn’t actually rack up incredible numbers (only 12,000 views at the time of writing), which is why the Wagner Group has turned Grisha Putin into a new tool in its propaganda arsenal for the war in Ukraine. I would be surprised if it was used as Still, it’s a twisted showcase of his 21st-century modern warfare, the kind that would be cut and featured in a future Adam Curtis documentary: The Western military-industrial complex is call of duty (opens in new tab) and making plans to stream (opens in new tab)videos like this feel like a harbinger of things to come.
