Én ting er de mange brede sanktioner som diverse nationer har valgt at indføre mod Rusland, for at sende et klart og tydeligt signal til Kremlin om hvad verden synes om invasionen af Ukraine, men en helt anden er de mange kulturelle konsekvenser det også har haft.
Film bliver trukket ud af landet, virksomheder lukker ned for tjenester, og nu vi landene Rusland og Hviderusland sågar bliver fjernet fra populære sportsspil. Mere specifikt har EA afsløret via Twitter, at de fjerner begge lande fra både NHL- og FIFA-serien, naturligvis for også at sende et klart og tydeligt signal. De har skrevet følgende om FIFA:
"EA Sports stands in solidarity with the Ukrainian people and like so many voices across the world of football, calls for peace and an end to the invasion of Ukraine. In line with our partners at FIFA and UEFA, EA Sports has initiated processes to remove the Russian national team and all Russian clubs from EA Sports FIFA products including: FIFA 22, FIFA Mobile and FIFA Online. We're also actively evaluating related changes to other areas of our games.
We will keep our communities up to date on any actions taken, and thank players for their patience as we work through these updates."
Og dette om NHL:
"Following the IIHF's suspension of all Russian and Belarusian national and club teams from IIHF competitions, we will be removing these teams from NHL 22 within the coming weeks. We stand with the people of Ukraine and join the voices around the world calling for peace."
Rusland og Hviderusland er ydermere blevet bandlyst fra reel FIFA-kvalifikation.