Russian politician calls GTA 6 a stench of Americanism — but loves that Americans kill each other in it

Vitaly Milonov, a State Duma deputy from Russia's ruling United Russia party, has weighed in on GTA 6 — and his take is exactly as unhinged as you'd expect. Speaking on Russian radio station Govorit Moskva, Milonov called the series a vehicle for violence and hooliganism, saying the upcoming entry carries "the stench of Americanism."

Milonov told the station that GTA, from its very first version, has been about violence and hooliganism, and that GTA 6 doesn't differ from its predecessors in terms of what he calls "deviance." Milonov is deputy chairman of the State Duma Committee on Family, Women and Children and has spent his political career pushing laws against gay rights and so-called non-traditional values in Russia — so his definition of deviance carries a lot of baggage. Despite the rhetoric, he's not actually worried GTA 6 will corrupt Russian youth. His reasoning: a normal person understands it's set in the USA, where — in his words — violence, sex, and drugs really reign.

Rockstar's open-world crime series has always attracted moral panic from politicians across the political spectrum, but Milonov's spin is a new one. Rather than demanding a ban, he essentially endorses the carnage on the grounds that it only affects virtual Americans. "Any violence in GTA is violence against a potential enemy," he said, "so if they all tear each other apart — even just in GTA — it will only be for the better." It's a remarkable sentence from a sitting lawmaker, and Rockstar is almost certainly not printing it on the box.

GTA 6 is still on track for a fall 2025 release on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S, with no PC release date confirmed yet. Milonov, for his part, sounds like he won't be picking up a copy — though at this point it's hard to tell.