The Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) shot and killed three men in Russia's Voronezh region on March 23. Russian state media subsequently reported the incident, claiming that the FSB had eliminated a terrorist group, and the FSB issued an official statement describing the group as (machine translated) "a secret organization of supporters of Ukrainian nationalist ideology."

However, things were not so simple, and the person who was shot was role-playing a character from the video game "S.T.A.L.K.E.R: Shadow of Chernobyl" and may have been killed by the wrong person.

The FSB statement gives an account of the incident claiming that the individual fired shots before being killed. "When we tried to detain the ringleader and his two accomplices [...]. . the latter offered armed resistance to the FSB officers and were decimated by retaliatory actions.

The state claims that investigators found two "improvised explosive devices" and various items, including firearms, at the scene.

However, Russian state television coverage of the incident unwittingly opened another line of investigation. A British flag flies on the wall, with a wolf's head motif in front of it. The accounting books of the "Svoboda Group" are shown.

Note that this video contains images that some people may find distressing.

The Svoboda party is an ultranationalist party in Ukraine. However, it is the same faction that appears in S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl, and what is shown in the state-run video is of the game faction, not the real world party. This was first noticed by military historian and researcher Chris0_Wiki on Twitter.

"It is not clear what the three were allegedly planning," the military expert wrote. However, according to the Moscow Times, two of the three were well-known participants in the Voronezh airsoft community; one used the nickname Stalker Fosgen in a live-action role play based on the "S.T.A.L.K.E.R." game."

Real-world political parties do not use imagery that could be confused with fictional factions.

"S.T.A.L.K.E.R: Shadow of Chernobyl" has created a live-action role-playing community in Russia and Ukraine, and further coverage in the Moscow Times has identified the social media accounts and friends of the murdered individuals (Thanks, Vice). Vladimir Kotovsky had a role-playing character, "Stalker Fosgen," and his account contains photos of him and his friends dressed up as Stalker and exploring Voronezh. His social media pages also show the same wolf emblem shown in the compound video.

The Moscow Times spoke to a friend of the murdered individual, who confirmed that the man was part of a local LARP community that dressed up as stalkers and played with air guns. The following video is of the LARP group they may have been a part of.

The FSB also made headlines earlier this year with a bizarre propaganda piece linking Sims 3 to an alleged assassination plot. In that case, the confusion seemed to be over the game and cell phone sim cards.

The FSB seems to have made a terrible mistake here, which resulted in the deaths of three men.