The actual Twitter account from the actual embassy for the Russian Federation in London tweeted an image from a video game Thursday while issuing an actual statement about Syria’s actual civil war.
“Extremists near Aleppo received several truckloads of chemical ammo,” the tweet read, alongside an image of weapon-laden trucks. Added some fine print: “Image used for illustration purposes only.”
But wait, they weren’t just any weapon-laden trucks. These bomb trucks were from the video game “Command & Conquer: Generals.” The image came from the page about the bomb trucks on the “Command & Conquer” fan wiki.
. @mod_russia: Extremists near Aleppo received several truckloads of chemical ammo. pic.twitter.com/scCEMXRvwH
— Russian Embassy, UK (@RussianEmbassy) May 12, 2016
“Command & Conquer” is a series of strategy computer games dating back to the mid-’90s. “Generals” was a spinoff title, released in 2003, that was intended to reflect a possible real-world future conflict between three factions: the United States, China and the terrorist Global Liberation Army.
The bomb trucks in the image belong to the fictional Global Liberation Army, which uses them as suicide bombers. These trucks don’t have chemical weapons — they just blow up.