The Tverskoy District Court in Moscow has fined the “Falanster” bookshop and its founder, Boris Kupriyanov, for selling a single book. This was reported (1, 2) by a Mediazona correspondent from the courtroom.
The bookshop was fined 80,000 roubles (about US$860) under the article on organising the activity of an “undesirable” organisation, and Kupriyanov was fined 40,000 roubles (about US$430) for participating in such activity.
The fines were imposed over the sale of a book by Belarusian anarchist Igor Olinevich, titled “I’m Going to Magadan.” The book was published with support from the “Anarchist Black Cross Federation,” which was declared “undesirable” at the start of 2024. In December last year, a buyer purchased the book, and this became the grounds for prosecution. The shop earned 152 roubles (about US$1.60) from the sale.
Kupriyanov denied guilt. “He said the book was a second-hand title brought into the shop in two copies, that he did not participate in the 'Falanster’ organisation’s activities or communicate with its representatives. The shop received no information from the organisation, nor did it pay them any funds,” Mediazona reports.
Lawyer Aleksandr Aldaev, among other points, noted that the agreement to receive the book was concluded in August 2023, six months before the “Anarchist Black Cross Federation” was labelled as “undesirable.”
- In March, prosecutors came to “Falanster” for an inspection. As publicist Ivan Davydov wrote, security officials seized several books against a receipt, including works by the philosophers Michel Foucault, Hannah Arendt, Walter Benjamin, and Susan Sontag.
- In February, “Falanster” cancelled a book launch for Kirill Medvedev’s “Antifascism for All. Revised and Expanded” after tip-offs from pro-government activists. The book discusses, among other things, the murders of lawyer Stanislav Markelov and Novaya Gazeta journalist Anastasia Baburova.
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Illustration: OVD-Info