What is not dangerous Boris Akunin

The interest of investigators in the book of Grigory Chkhartishvili (pseudonym - Boris Akunin) "The whole world of the theater" turned into a political joke.

The Office of the Investigative Committee for Moscow at the end of October began a verification of the presence of signs of extremism in the book. Grigory Chkhartishvili reported this on October 27 on his blog in the morning.

The reason for the verification was a statement by a certain A.M. Voevodin . About its beginning to the director of the Publishing House "Zakharov", where the book of Chkhartishvili was published, said Konstantin Tsepelev, senior investigator of the Presnensky department of the Investigative Department of the Central District of Moscow. He called the director of the publishing house Irina is rich to give explanations.

"At the same time, I ask you to provide copies of the contract with Chkhartishvili G.Sh <...>, as well as provide a copy of the novel" The whole world of theater "and the contact details of Chkhartishvili G.Sh. for further verification events," the investigator’s appeal to Irina says.

The director of the publishing house, being outside Russia, was not going to go to the investigator in any case. According to her, she has been cooperating with Grigory Chkhartishvili since 1998, a similar test - "ridiculous" and in her practice for the first time.

-I want to think that this is another idiocy, and not some kind of intentional, planned action. The book is about the theater, about love, its action takes place until 1917. At first, the investigator would have to read this book himself. We would never have published it if there was extremism in it. Boris Akunin could not write this. It is unfortunate that there are no other problems with senior investigators, the main investigative department ...

Irina added that the book "The whole world of theater" was the same success as the rest of Chkhartishvili's books about Erast Fandorin: it was published in a circulation of 500 thousand copies. The entire circulation was sold, and the publishing house had to publish a book again. The story of an extremism test, according to Irina, is rich, will not necessarily bring the book even greater fame:

- Maybe the audit will add popularity, or maybe the stores are frightened and refuse to take it. This, of course, is from the field of science fiction, but everything happens in our country, ”said Irina is rich.

In the Investigative Committee of Moscow, the correspondent was sent to the Investigative Committee for Russia. And there they advised to monitor the updates on the official website of the department. However, the scandal around the audit of the book lasted only a few hours. It began on the morning of October 27, when the writer posted information about it on his blog, and ended already in the afternoon. Interfax agency, citing the Investigative Committee in Moscow, reported: the investigation did not find extremism in Akunin’s book, the applicant was refused to initiate a criminal case:

- The city prosecutor’s office of Nizhny Novgorod from a convicted person to a life imprisonment received a statement on the presence in Boris Akunin’s book “The whole world” of extremist statements. The application was sent to the investigating authorities indicating the audit. Currently, the audit has been carried out, a decision has been made to refuse to institute criminal proceedings in connection with the absence of an event of a crime, ”the agency of the official representative of the department Victoria Tsyplenkova quotes.

Grigory Chkhartishvili himself in an interview with Radio Freedom connected the test of his book with the upcoming Russian march. He suggested that on the eve of this event, investigators could be more painfully perceiving statements about potential extremism.

“You are not offended that you had failed precisely to this book?” Do you really think that this is what the answer to your public criticism of power or the support of Khodorkovsky , for example?

- No, my consciousness is not arranged so conspirarological. I am sure this is an ordinary routine check. It’s funny and strange to me what shape she took. In our country, there are already enough problems with extremism, with inciting national growth. Take a book, read it and understand that this statement was written by an idiot. And do not take busy people from business. In the end, the audit is carried out at the expense of our time and money by taxpayers ... It seems that additional fun is the applicant's personality. It is likely that A.M. Voevodin is one of the leaders of the Skinhead gang, which is in life imprisonment on charges of extremism. Apparently he is bored. And investigators perceive his statements not critically.

-Still, why now and why this book?

- Why is this book I don't know. It seems to be not Mine Campf, but a detective novel. I think this is a seasonal aggravation, which is associated with the approach of November 4 and the Russian march. Apparently, there is an order: all statements in which the word "extremism" appears to urgently consider and report. Maybe I'm wrong.

- Obviously, the authorities flirting with people who are nationalistically configured. The most striking example is Putin's meeting with fans after riots on Manezhnaya Square . Search for extremism in your book is one of the indirect consequences of such a policy?

- The authorities in our country often flirted with nationalist forces, and nothing of this came out of this. From the authorities I do not expect anything. It is much more surprising to me that some opposition forces that we consider to be sane are trying to attract this part of the population to their side.

- In general, there is no intelligible power reaction to your criticism of the process in the Yukos case : neither dialogue nor repression.

- When I speak out in the Yukos case or other public issues, I do not turn to power. The genre "writer and power" is definitely not for me. I turn to ordinary people, try to convince them of what I am convinced of. I think this is not in vain. The percentage of people who are sympathetic to Khodorkovsky has grown greatly in recent years and continues to grow. In our country, there are much more people who believe that he and Lebedev must be released.