The Trans-Baikal court fined the “Read-Gorod” network after a denunciation to the FSB and an examination that found “sexual anarchism” in the books

At the end of December 2025, a court in Chita fined 800 thousand rubles to the company Gramota LLC, which owns the brand of the book chain Read-Gorod, under the protocol on “LGBT propaganda” (Part 1 of Article 6.21 of the Administrative Code) after denunciation of four books, Mediazona learned from the published text of the decision on the fine.

The denunciation to the local FSB department was written by two residents, whom the court designated as “victims.” On October 5 and 6, they bought books whose titles were not disclosed. By the end of the month, buyers found in them “signs of propaganda of non-traditional sexual relations.”

After this, the printed publications, along with cash receipts, were handed over to the FSB “for verification.” Security forces came to the store on November 24, according to the court order.

A linguistic examination concluded that the books purchased by Transbaikal residents “challenge traditional Russian ideas about family and society,” and their authors “call for the elimination of the traditional social value system and its replacement with sexual anarchism.”

Fragment of examination from a court decision

“The publications develop and present an alternative form of social organization, where individual values ​​that are unconventional in nature are extolled, and traditional morality is presented as a sign of an ossified society.

The publications critically examine the established state power and traditional social hierarchies in each country.

Under the slogan of liberation from prejudice, the authors call for the elimination of the traditional social value system and its replacement with sexual anarchism, in which individuals choose their gender orientation at any time in their lives."

Based on the results of the “cultural analysis,” the books were also seen to have “a certain homosexual orientation” and influence “on the ideas of Russian readers who were brought up in a traditional family, in good relations between spouses, in pedagogical relations between parents and children.”

“[Traditional relationships] are presented as conservative, outdated and unnecessary in modern society. <...> The texts contain signs of exaltation of one social ideology, in particular “LGBT”, over traditional Russian values ​​and social foundations,” the examination concluded.

An anonymous source from MK in Chita previously reported that the “Read-Gorod” network was charged with selling books “with propaganda of homosexuality.”

The PostNews website, without indicating a source, wrote that we could be talking about the books “Bear Corner” and “Us Against You” by Fredrik Backman, “Invisible Furies of the Heart” by John Boyne and “The Left Hand of Darkness” by Ursula Le Guin.