Basically, they think the average Russian might not have the money to buy a full $59.99 (£38.90, €44.16) StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty game (not to think of the Collector's Edition) and are instead offering the game and its services "in instalments".

Russians can either buy the DVD version of the game for 999 rubles (£22.38 or €25.41, about half the price of the European version) or a cheaper version of the jewel-case for 499 rubles. Players purchasing these will not be able to play on European servers, but will be kept on more limited Russian servers and will not gain permanent multiplayer access. The DVD version will allow Battle.net access for one year, and the jewel-case version will allow access for 120 days.

After the free multiplayer period is up, any Russian StarCraft 2 fan interested in multiplayer will have to pay a monthly fee. However, it's possible to buy a one-time upgrade to gain unlimited multiplayer access as well as European server access, and this will be an option available directly from purchase. Blizzard has not confirmed the prices of the monthly fee or the upgrade, but Starcraft2.net.pl who uncovered the story in the first place has been told it would be about €3 per month, and a €30 (£27) upgrade fee. Kapeselus has commented and said that these figures are "sucked from the finger" (which likely is a Polish saying that Google Translate just can't translate properly). We assume it just means he feels someone randomly pulled those figures. If they would be right, however, the total price for a Russian "full" game would ironically be higher than that of a European.

He also comforts the Polish community by saying this scheme will not come to Poland, so it's unlikely to hit many other European countries either. However, it's interesting to see here that the Battle.net system obviously is designed and prepared for the possibility of monthly fees, if the need to add them ever should arise.