State-run television in Russia may be in hot water after airing video game footage during a tribute for Russia's armed forces. A news program aired footage using footage from Arma-3 to represent military action in Syria.
It is still unclear if the use of the footage was done by mistake.
Arma-3
Footage show on the Voskresnoye Vremya show on Channel One TV showed footage from Arma-3. The tribute was shown as part of the Defender of the Fatherland Day celebrations. As of the writing of this article, the footage still hasn't been removed from the tribute.
The footage was used during a portion of the tribute honoring Alexander Prokhorenko, a pilot that was killed in Syria after calling an airstrike on himself. During that portion of the video, the footage is intercut with real-world shots. In a blink, the footage could be spotted despite appearing on screen for less than one second.
Scroll to 2:35 in the video below to see the Arma-3 footage.
A screenshot of the footage was posted on Russian social media website Pikabu. It was pointed out by one of the commenters that this same bit of footage was used in a previous report by Channel One TV news. In another report that was about Prokhorenko, an extended part of the same footage was used.
This isn't the first time that the Russian government has come under fire for using video games to depict real-world conflicts.
Russian Ministry Of Defense
In November 2017, it was revealed that the Russian Ministry of Defense posted a screenshot from a mobile game on social media to show evidence that the U.S. armed forces were supporting ISIS in Syria. This evidence of support was posted on social media. The problem was that this "evidence" depicted a screenshot from a little known mobile game.
Elliot Higgins, a research associate at Kings College, pointed out that the images were actually from an online trailer for AC-130 Gunship Simulator: Special Ops Squadron. The Russian Ministry of Defense just cropped out the part of the image that included the disclaimer -- "Development footage / This is a work in progress / All content subject to change."
Unlike the video above, the Russian Ministry of Degense acknowledged the mistake and removed the image from its social media posts.
"The Russian Ministry of Defense is investigating its civilian employee who mistakenly attached photos to a statement on the US-led coalition's interaction with the Islamic State militants in the area of Abu-Kamal," said a statement was given to RT.
