Anatoly Aksakov called for a ban on the "phenomenon-game" Hamster Kombat.

According to Anatoly Aksakov, Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Financial Markets, the popular mini-game Hamster Kombat on the Telegram messenger has a negative impact on Russians and should be banned. At present, the official Hamster Kombat channel on Telegram has 52 million subscribers. The game has gained popularity not only in Russia, but worldwide, where users "tap" on a hamster to earn in-game currency. Currently, these coins cannot be converted into real money, but Telegram's creator Pavel Durov has promised to release project tokens on the TON blockchain.

"We must certainly put a stop to this. Such things need to be stopped. In my view, this is clearly fraud. Manipulating and exploiting citizens' psychology, especially those who don't really want to work but dream of playing with minimal effort and getting rich," Aksakov said.

The parliamentarian described the popularity of Hamster Kombat as "almost a psychosis." He noted that the game represents external influence and could lead to negative consequences. While the State Duma has not yet fully addressed the issue, Aksakov stated that "it definitely needs to be discussed."

According to a recent survey by VTSIOM ( All-Russian Center for the Study of Public Opinion), nearly half of the respondents are aware of the Hamster Kombat chat-bot, and the popularity of products allowing quicker hamster tapping has significantly increased on Russian marketplaces.