14 DAY TRIAL // If you've ventured through the single-player campaign of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, then you've already gotten a taste of what the developers think of Russia and its residents. As any good American that has lived through the Cold War or been raised on movies inspired by that period, the writers behind MW2's story have depicted the Russians as something worse than the stereotypical vodka drinking, frozen-lake skinny-dipping enthusiasts. Russia is the blight of the civilized world, which is, of course, only made up of America and, in some small part, of its allies. In short, the MW2 writers are pretty much acting like the historians of the Roman Empire, glorifying their own nation, and, at the cost of reality, labeling everyone else as barbarian nations.
Of course, America, in its embodiment of all that's just the Bold Eagle of freedom incarnate, does nothing more than react to the villainous acts committed by Russia. The former Eastern Europe pillar of communism is tasked by the game with invading the US and in the end even using its nuclear arsenal.
An even more controversial scene lets players participate in a terrorist massacre at a Moscow airport. Democracy implies freedom of speech, but it also implies the freedom to also let others impose their will and opinions on you. As such, unconfirmed rumors declare that Russia has decided to ban the game's distribution on Russian soil.
If the PC version has been given the green light only after the offensive content was removed, the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions were completely removed from the shelves this Friday. The rumors were started by a post on the Russian-language site Gotps3.ru, and, even if they haven't been properly confirmed yet, other publications have already conveyed the information.
The British tabloid The Daily Mirror and the Silicon Valley blog VentureBeat have also reported the story. But, at this moment, this seems to be the only source of the information, and it seems a little odd that no one else from Russia can confirm the rumor, or deny it, for that matter. As far as Activision goes, of course, it did not provide any response to the request to clarify the situation.