The British government, along with the EU, has put a ban on the exports of video game controllers to Russia. The country says that the latest round of 150 sanctions, including the controller ban, is aimed towards degrading Russia’s drone capabilities in its ongoing war with Ukraine.
The UK government has accused Russia of repurposing these non-assuming game controllers into tools that can be used to control drones that it uses in its air strikes against Ukraine. “Video game consoles will no longer be exploited to kill people in Ukraine,” Stephen Doughty, the UK’ Foreign Office Minister, said regarding the sanctions.
“And our tough new measures will also degrade Russia’s military machine – new export sanctions mean Putin will no longer be able to get his hands on specialist technology used to produce weaponry for his illegal war.”
While the military of other countries, such as the US, has gone to great lengths to build its own custom controllers to use with its own purpose-built equipment, Russia still seemingly purchases consumer-grade controllers for a primary reason: it’s a hell of a lot cheaper to buy one than build from scratch.
The war of drones has become a key element in Russia’s aggression towards Ukraine. Three years after this war of attrition began – tens of thousands of its infantry dead, and just as many of its armour destroyed – the country has managed to stem the tides of their losses, however small, by adopting similar drone tactics as the country it attacked.
Besides controllers, other products banned from the UK into Russia include software used for identifying new fuel sources like oil and gas. Others include export of chemicals, electronics, metal, machinery, and software tools that were reportedly linked to the energy and defense sectors.
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