A criminal case has been initiated against the director of the Library of Ukrainian Literature

A criminal case has been initiated against Natalya Sharina under Art. 282 of the Criminal Code, she is threatened with arrest.

On October 29, 2015, it became known that a criminal case had been opened in Moscow under paragraph “b” of Part 2 of Art. 282 of the Criminal Code (incitement of national hatred or enmity using official position) against the director of the Library of Ukrainian Literature Natalya Sharina, the investigation filed a petition with the court for her arrest.

A message on the Investigative Committee’s website signed by Vladimir Markin states that “according to the investigation, in 2011-2015, the director of the Library of Ukrainian Literature, Sharina, an official, in violation of the Federal Law “On Combating Extremist Activities,” distributed Dmitro’s book publications among visitors Korchinsky, recognized by the court as extremist materials and prohibited for use." Let us clarify that only one book by Korchinsky is included in the Federal List of Extremist Materials (item 2089: Dmitry Korchinsky. Viina u Natovpi. Kiev: “Amadeus”, 1999. The decision was made by the Meshchansky District Court of Moscow on March 14, 2013). We also note that the Ukrainian radical right-wing organization of Dmitro Korchinsky “Brotherhood” was banned in Russia by a decision of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation dated November 17, 2014. Members of the “Brotherhood” and Korchinsky himself participated in hostilities in eastern Ukraine; in 2014, the Investigative Committee opened cases against him under criminal law. .2 tbsp. 354 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (public calls for unleashing an aggressive war using the media), Part 2 of Art. 205.2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (public calls for terrorist activities using the media).

Let us remind you that on October 28, 2015, Sharina was detained, a search was carried out at her home and in the library premises. Deputy of the Council of Deputies of the Yakimanka Municipal District of Moscow, Dmitry Zakharov, stated in his blog on LiveJournal that the inspection at the library was carried out at his request. According to the Investigative Committee, “printed materials containing calls for anti-Russian and anti-Russian propaganda were seized from the library.” As Sharina herself reported, the children's magazine "Barvinok" and seven books by the Ukrainian poet Dmitry Pavlychko were confiscated. Deputy Chairman of the public organization "Ukrainians of Moscow" Valery Semenenko was questioned as a witness in the case, and his home was also searched.

The persecution of Sharina, from our point of view, is unlawful for several reasons. Let us recall that the law on countering extremism conflicts with the law on library science, since in accordance with the latter, libraries are required to store all incoming materials in the collection. The need to eliminate this contradiction is long overdue, however, instead of taking appropriate legislative measures, the authorities punish librarians for distributing prohibited literature or storing it for the purpose of distribution under Art. 20.29 of the Code of Administrative Offenses, if they do not check the titles of books from the collections and new receipts with the constantly updated Federal List of Extremist Materials and do not confiscate prohibited ones. In this case, not even an administrative, but a criminal case was initiated. Criminal prosecution under Art. 282 of the Criminal Code is carried out when we are talking about an act of propaganda - the deliberate dissemination of materials that are not prohibited by the court, but have dangerous content. However, librarians do not engage in propaganda; they store and lend books, and, naturally, no law requires them to familiarize themselves with the content of literature.

Let us remind you that this is not the first attempt by the Russian authorities to bring to justice the director of the library of Ukrainian literature. In 2011, a case was also initiated against Natalya Sharina under Art. 282 of the Criminal Code, but was soon terminated due to lack of corpus delicti.

On October 30, 2015, Natalya Sharina stated that she had reason to believe that law enforcement agencies planted a stack of books in the library, “which were later taken out during a search”; There are no library stamps on these books. She also indicated that Korchinsky’s banned book was removed from the collections back in 2011, because the library was searched for this book, which was later recognized as extremist. Sharina's lawyer said that in recent days his client has suffered two hypertensive crises. On the evening of October 30, the Tagansky District Court of Moscow granted the investigation’s request and authorized Sharina’s placement under house arrest. Let us note that the prosecutor's office opposed the arrest in court.

On December 3, 2015, the Moscow City Court rejected the appeal against Sharina’s arrest; the term of house arrest was set until December 27, 2015.

Sources

• Vladimir Markin. The director of the State budgetary cultural institution "Library of Ukrainian Literature" was detained in Moscow // Website of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation. 2015. October 29.
• The Investigative Committee opened a criminal case against the director of the Library of Ukrainian Literature // Kommersant. 2015. October 29.
• The director of the Ukrainian library in Moscow was charged with inciting national hatred // New Time. 2015. October 29.
• The director of the Library of Ukrainian Literature claims that law enforcement officers planted a stack of books before the search // Ekho Moskvy. 2015. October 30.
• The court recognized the house arrest of the director of the Library of Ukrainian Literature as legal // RAPSI. 2015. December 3.