Yeah, Russia Probably Forged A Weapons Cache Supposedly From The US Using A Video Game To Model The Weapons
from the fake-it-til-you-make-it dept
Video games are starting to get realistic. Like, crazy realistic. Between what graphics look like on the latest hardware to the unbelievable committment to authenticity many of the latest games have, it's starting to get hard to tell game footage apart from video footage. So hard, in fact, that it appears the pro-Russian groups had an "oopsie!" moment while trying to accuse America of arming Ukrainian rebels with Stinger missiles.
A video from Ukrainian pro-Russian separatists...shows the rebels storming an underground compound and dusting off a wooden case with a "US army" inscription, where a the MANPADS Stinger 92 surface-to-air missile is stored.Here's a screenshot from the video, showing the Stinger missile in question.
Notice anything strange? Unless you're familiar with American military equipment, you might have missed the lettering at the bottom of the device that reads "TRACKING RAINER." You probably also aren't aware that the actual American Stinger missiles have that same lettering, except that it's supposed to read "TRACKING TRAINER" instead.
The most significant mistake is found in the inscription on the Stinger weapon itself, which reads "tracking rainer" instead of "tracking trainer". Video games blogger Anton Logvinov noted on his website that the same typo occurs in the EA first-person shooter game Battlefield 3, leading him to believe that the Stinger 'discovered' in Lugansk is likely fake.Russian propaganda: so good it very nearly fooled a video game blogger! We will, as always, welcome our friends from the Putin internet propaganda brigade in our comments section.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Filed Under: battlefield 3, propaganda, russia, stinger missiles, ukraine, video games, weapons cache
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
The boy who cried 'Stinger Missile'
In attempting to fabricate some pro-Russia propaganda, they instead shot themselves, and their credibility, in the foot.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: The boy who cried 'Stinger Missile'
That same tactic has been used by the Soviet regime since the end of WWII, usually with better success, too.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: The boy who cried 'Stinger Missile'
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Ahem.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
[ link to this | view in thread ]
No need to belittle the video game blogger. This would likely have passed by major news outlets without hitch, you know, if those would ever publish stuff against the US's interests.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
And what if Russians are claiming these typo's were done on purpose by the USA because of the above logic, while it's not true?
And what if the USA is claiming the Russians are lying when the Russians claim that the USA delivered these weapons including this typo to make it seem they did not send them?
And what if the Russians... Oh, well... You get my line of thinking by now. The truth? We'll never know it...
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re:
You, my friend, have seriously overestimated the "intelligence" in Military Intelligence.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re:
More likely that a batch of Stingers actually had that mistake and the video game used a weapon from that batch as its model.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
We copy their censorship laws, they copy the weapons of our videogames.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in thread ]
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Cardboard tube
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Re: The boy who cried 'Stinger Missile'
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Its like they are finding russian uniforms in their country, well hate to break it to you but you can find US uniforms in Canada, does that mean the Americans are invading Canada. Just finding Military gear in Neighbour countries does not mean they are behind this and it does not mean they are not behind it as well. There are always Canadian and American Troop movements on both sides of the border and sometimes we come really close to that border, does not mean we attacked each other.
See I just proved that the USA is trying to invade Canada, I have the army jacket to prove it /s
[ link to this | view in thread ]
[ link to this | view in thread ]
[ link to this | view in thread ]
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Silly Russians
Russians, pigs and assclowns - as always.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re:
Then the USSR fell apart, those Russians just stayed where they were, demanding they would become basically dual-citizens. A large population of the Ukraine and especially the Krim las a lot of Russian people.
There are also plenty of Ukrainian people in Russia, though. The forced migrations worked in two ways and was meant to make everyone equal to one another.
But now Russian and Ukrainian Nationalists are calling for a forced separation. And that's basically what started the whole conflict.
Yeap, Putin is Evil, but Putin isn't Russia!
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Our military labels Claymore mines "do not eat".
Why would they notice what labels appear on missiles?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re:
Many of which the US should just leave alone, especially those that the US was not invited!
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Developers of military FPS will have no incentive to include weapons if anybody can come along and steal their work with impunity.
Nuke 'em from orbit, the bastards.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Fake or this happened
Hey, guys... I have an idea. Let's fake a video of the US storing weapons in the Ukraine using this game engine.
-Sounds good, I make the assets you make the game.
Ok, your english is better anyway.
So yeah, either it is a fake or done by some drunk wannabe militairy guys. If Russia or even Mr NoShirt had anything to do with it they'd use real weapons. The US is selling them like candy so my guess is that for a gov it isn't hard to get some of those.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re:
Did not believe you, was proven wrong. Feeling sorry for the guy who ate a Claymore. But also curious why he was doing it. Best I could come up with is "I'm so hungry I could eat a Claymore", his buddy "Do it!".
[ link to this | view in thread ]
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Arms manufacturers still license the likenesses of their guns to video game manufacturers.
For a while I was developing an open source fictional gun library of game assets that would allow for a consistent set of guns that behaved similarly across multiple games.
This presents yet another good reason to finish building such a library.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
The pro russian rebels sent out a misinformation video saying that the americans are arming them to fight against the neo nazi ukraine government that is currently being backed by the americans among other various goverments.
Why would a Russian backed group send out any info claiming their forces are being supplied and armed by their enemies instead of being armed by their allies.
If somehow the ukraine rebels are considered the pro neo nazi government forces then they need to call them something else.
I don't care for either side tbh. I have several friends living in ukraine and this is making a mess of their lives. I wish one side or the other would just win and end it. or the fascists to let those that want to secede go ahead and do it.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
I wonder if the DoD Ravioli was real.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Cynical Russians and Ukranians
Their history, literature and vodka-making skills certainly play that out.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Good and Bad here
Videos of Idiots. Pictures and Dogs Humping..
With a bit of video editing, or Just Capture 1 Picture in a Video game...
You can SAY anything. and have Proof..
With the Covert Ops of the past..its HARD for the people to know What has and have NOT been done in our OWN NATION..
It would be nice if our OWN gov would let us Know what they have FAILEd to do.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re:
That argument might have held more weight if a) it had anything to do with the obviously faked weapon being discussed an b) if the US had recently annexed Newfoundland and Canada had recently had its political system in shambles.
Wait... maybe the USA IS trying to invade Canada....
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in thread ]
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: not "the Ukraine."
[ link to this | view in thread ]
The Ukraine as in the borderlands
Ukraine without the article is, instead, the name of the country, which deserves to be expressed as its own thing rather than in relationship to someone else.
As an old cold war fogey, I still get it wrong too.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Re:
It's a proxy war between Russia and America essentially.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
LOL!
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Re: Re: The boy who cried 'Stinger Missile'
It's difficult to distinguish truth from fiction, and although still disputed by the perpetrating nations, the weight of argument tells us that the Rape of Nanking happened, as did the Massacre of the Armenians.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: The Ukraine as in the borderlands
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Re: The boy who cried 'Stinger Missile'
These bases are and always were to be able to first strike Russia, hell Kaliningrad is Russia but it's just an exclave north of Poland. The Iran excuse was a joke, but also to appease Israel.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Re: Re: Re: The boy who cried 'Stinger Missile'
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Russian and Ukranian articles.
Calling Ukraine The Ukraine is by no means a criminal act or even a severe faux pas, but it is step towards the Ukraine peoples owning their own destinies rather than being walked all over and occupied like poor Poland.
I tend to want to oblige them.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: The boy who cried 'Stinger Missile'
Historians still believe there was such a thing.
I always thought of a massacre as single events that kill lots of people such as the Boston Massacre or the Dresden Massacre Tokyo, Hiroshima and Nagasaki could also be considered massacres.
[ link to this | view in thread ]