Popular Moscow bookstore facing charges for ‘LGBT propaganda’

The Falanster bookstore in Moscow has had charges laid against it for promoting “LGBT propaganda”, independent news outletMediazona reported on Wednesday.

Founded in 2002, Falanster is known as one of the few independent bookstores in the city, catering to academics and specialising in philosophy, history, sociology and other humanities.

A Moscow court will also look into Falanster co-founder Boris Kupriyanov for participating in the work of an “undesirable” organisation, according to the Moscow courts’ website, though it remains unclear what exactly both these civil cases relate to. The court hearings have been scheduled for 17 July.

On 26 May, the same court fined fined Falanster and Kupriyanov 80,000 rubles (€890) and 40,000 rubles (€445) respectively for participating in the work of an “undesirable” organisation by selling the book On the Way to Magadan by Belarusian anarchist writer Ihar Alinevich, which was published with the support of the Anarchist Black Cross, an organisation that the Justice Ministry deemed “undesirable” in early 2024.

Kupriyanov pleaded not guilty to the charges. At trial, he said that he only discovered the Anarchist Black Cross connection once the Prosecutor’s Office had begun looking into the case. He also pointed out that it had been declared “undesirable” after the publishing contract had been signed.

A nationwide crackdown on books and bookshops began in April, when police seized dozens of books with LGBT and feminist themes from the Podpisnye Izdaniya bookstore in St. Petersburg, while in May, police in Moscow detained a number of publishing professionals, including a director at Russia’s largest publishing house Eksmo, in connection to a criminal case relating to books allegedly containing “LGBT propaganda”.