Alright, the title is a bit clickbaity, but hear me out!
Little background: Since the start of the Ukraine invasion, Russia and Belarus have been hit with massive sanctions, and a lot of stuff suddenly became unavailable. That includes quite a few video games that became unavailable on steam. Helldivers being one of them. And, since it started, a lot of people, myself included, have left the country in disagreement with the regime, mostly to ex-USSR countries, like Armenia, Georgia, Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan. Others, who, for some reason, are unable or are unwilling to move, either resorted to piracy, or got their steam accounts switched to one of said countries, mostly with help from friends in one of them. This is a good thing in a way that that that it moves place where the taxes are paid, and gives more power to those countries, especially as they grow wary of their warmongering neighbor and increasingly drift away from their shared USSR past, effectively weakening war machine.
Now with geographic restrictions put on all of those countries on Steam, I've been pondering if there's a way to still somehow buy this game for my friends to play with, some of whom are still residing in Russia, and stumbled upon this:
https://shop.buka.ru/item/HELLDIVERS_2_versiya_RF
This is a totally legit, official store of one of the oldest major publishers in Russia, and official SONY's partner. What caught my attention is that they have two separate versions available - one for Russia and Belarus, and another for ex-USSR countries. The first one is a little problematic as it means that SONY is continuing doing business in Russia and doesn't give a fuck about it waging a war. But whatever. The second one, on the other hand, is completely nuts. As far as I can tell, it is the only place where you could obtain the game officially in said countries. With the price of roughly $40 with 20% VAT included, that'd be $8 straight into Putin's pockets for every copy sold. Sweet liberty! Plus whatever the publisher's cut is, that gets further taxed down the road. For a person who fled from dictatorship and is conscious about where their money go, or for a citizen of a country that was invaded and is still partly occupied, or a person displaced from their home because the peacekeepers just told them to fuck off and left, that sounds like a bad joke.
I do realize that VAT from video game sales is a drop in the ocean, compared to oil and gas exports. But still, I'd say that a good enough reason to keep pushing SONY to lift geographic restrictions on Steam.
If you think 26% is bad, in Russia it's going to be priced at around ₽80-100k(~$883, VAT included), but the median monthly salary is ₽43.500 - $480... That's well over 100% median household income given that over 38% families only have a single parent. And I'm pretty sure that's not even the worst out there, think like Argentina has an extortionate import tax or something?