In Arkhangelsk, a city in north-western Russia, an editor from an anarchist publishing house was detained at a book fair.

In Arkhangelsk, at a book fair taking place during the city festival “White June,” police detained Mikhail Tsovma, editor of the publishing house Black Square, journalist Pavel Nikulin reported on his Telegram channel.

Later, the publishing house reported on its own channel that Tsovma had been taken to the Central police station: “They are confiscating two boxes of books. They are going to investigate something.”

The reason for the detention is still unknown.

23:17 Tsovma was released from the police station, journalist Pavel Nikulin reported.

21 June The editor-in-chief of Black Square, Mikhail Tsovma, was questioned for three hours at the Arkhangelsk Centre “E” (the Centre for Combating Extremism). This was reported by Novaya Gazeta, citing the publisher himself.

The security forces did not bring any administrative or criminal charges against the man. As a result of the interrogation, they took an explanatory statement from Tsovma, and also seized 59 book titles—a total of 139 copies—for expert examination.

Police paid particular attention to the book “Antifascism for All” by Kirill Medvedev and to books from anarchist publishers. Among the authors whose books were confiscated were Stanislav Markelov, Giorgio Agamben, Thomas Mann, Boris Poplavsky, Lev Rubinstein, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and others.

• Black Square describes its mission as promoting anarchist, libertarian, and anti-authoritarian ideas among Russian-speaking audiences. The publishing house releases books dealing with the history and theory of anarchism and related movements. In December 2024, the Non/fiction book fair refused to allow the publisher to participate.