Following U.S. sanctions against Russia, Crimean citizens will now have no access to World of Warcraft, Steam and other video game networks. It's part of the package sanction the U.S. announced when Russia annexed Crimea and started a civil war in Ukraine.

The sanction might not be the most painful for Russian and Crimean citizens, but it has made PC gaming almost impossible in the region. The U.S. and Europe have made sure to cut almost all ties to Russia, forcing the country to stop its current offensive against Ukraine.

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"In accordance with current trade regulations relating to the region of Crimea, we are legally required to suspend access to your Battle.net account," Blizzard wrote in a statement to each Battle.net user in Crimea.

Even though Russian officials have denied working inside Ukraine to sway the civil war, several insiders claim Russia has been supplying the pro-Russian militants. Tanks and other armed forces from Russia are currently on the border of Ukraine.

Apple and Google, two of the main technology corporations in the U.S., also removed all products and services from the region. While this may be fine for Yandex that operates a search engine inside Russia, it means less consumer goods are available in Russia, which in turn leads to less economic stability.

To understand the scope of these sanctions, in China game and tech companies are able to freely work and offer service even though the U.S. has regulations against selling weapons in China and offering some services like defense, nuclear and automation.

Iran is under similar sanctions as Russia at the moment, meaning U.S. corporations cannot work inside the country due to its nuclear program.

The Ukrainian crisis is still a massive civil war and all members of NATO are working with the Ukrainian government to bring stability back into the region. Russia has shown little to no interest in negotiations to remove its forces from the Ukraine border, and has not confirmed its weapons deployment inside the pro-Russian zones.

Russian President Vladimir Putin claims there will be major consequences to governments pushing sanctions and also claims that Eastern allies will more than make up for the imports and exports that the Western governments are dropping.

TagsWorld of Warcraft, steam, Crimea, Russia, Ukraine crisis