The Library of Ukrainian Literature, whose director is under house arrest, will be abolished in Moscow

The Moscow City Hall plans to abolish the Library of Ukrainian Literature, whose director Natalya Sharina is under house arrest on charges of extremism. Sharina’s lawyer Ivan Pavlov spoke about the impending liquidation of the library on Monday.

“The Department of National Policy, Interregional Relations and Tourism of the city of Moscow, to whom the premises of the BUL are transferred, asks the Department of Culture to attach the library’s book collections somewhere, as well as “to resolve the issue of further employment” of its employees. Well, it’s good that at least not immediately in a pre-trial detention center. They are going to create a kind of Multimedia Center for East Slavic peoples in the premises of the BUL. Multimedia, Karl!” - the lawyer wrote.

The head of the department of national policy, Vladimir Chernikov, told RBC that we are talking about reforming the library, and not about its liquidation. He confirmed to the publication that one of the proposals, which is currently being discussed at the mayor's office, is related to the creation of a multimedia center based on the library.

At the end of October, a criminal case was opened against the director of the Library of Ukrainian Literature in Moscow, Natalya Sharina, under Article 282 of the Criminal Code (inciting hatred or enmity on social grounds).

According to investigators, in 2011-2015, Sharina distributed among library visitors books by the Ukrainian nationalist Dmitro Korchinsky, which the court recognized as extremist. Sharina is currently under house arrest.

On September 15, the library was searched again.