CEO: Wargaming to stay in Belarus despite turmoil

The world-famous video game company Wargaming has no intention to leave Belarus due to the ongoing political crisis, founder and CEO Victor Kislyi told in an interview with the Russian outlet Kanobu, which mainly focused on the 10th anniversary of the World of Tanks game. 

Responding to a question from the journalist, Kislyi said: "As a company, we are not involved in politics. We make games. Citizens of any country can express their personal views. Judging politics is not our business."

Due to the repressions against protesters after the Aug. 9 rigged elections, many Belarusian IT companies are eyeing options to relocate to other jurisdictions. According to Kislyi, this is not on Wargaming's agenda, yet there is a team of developers who may be willing to relocate. "They can sit down and chat with me. If they feel it will be more comfortable for them in some other country, we as a company will help then by all means," Kislyi said.

He also mentioned the situation which happened right after the Aug. 9 presidential elections in Belarus, when the authorities shut down the internet for several days during protests and brutal police crackdown.

"Internet was switched off for a couple of days. Even now, it is on and off. We cannot work if there is no internet. But we have 17 offices across the world. When we need to redistribute the workload, we can do it. We did it before without calamities. Now, of course, the situation is tenser," Kislyi said.

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