Russian Justice Ministry declares Bookmate and TV Rain founder foreign agents

Russia’s Justice Ministry has added the the e-book company Bookmate to its list of “foreign agent” media outlets.

Other new additions to the list include Andrey Bayev (director of Bookmate in Russia) and Aleskey Dokuchayev (marketing director of Bookmate and general director of publishing houses Individuum and Popcorn books).

Additions to the list of individual “foreign agents” also include Natalia Sindeeva, the founder of the television channel Rain; Vladimir Romensky, a host on the channel; and Yekaterina Kotrikadze, also a host and director of information services at TV Rain.

Also named individual “foreign agents” were lawyer Mikhail Benyasha, political analyst Taras Berezovets, and journalist and videoblogger Ivan Yakovina.

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• In August 2022, Vedomosti reported that Bookmate Limited, the Irish company which offers Bookmate e-book services, was leaving the Russian market. A source in the company said that the service would remain open in Russia and that Yandex, which bought the rights to Bookmate’s platform for CIS countries, would develop it.