Law enforcement authorities in St.
Petersburg raided a 100-year-old independent book shop, ordering the elimination of dozens of books they claim break Russias anti-LGBTQ+ laws, media reported Thursday.Podpisniye Izdaniya received a list of 48 books, consisting of by American writer Susan Sontag and banished feminist poetDaria Serenko, that were subject to the removal.In addition to LGBTQ+ books, 6 of the books were on feminism, one by popular dissident author Vladimir Sorokin and two others authored by foreign representative journalists Sergei Parkhomenko and Valery Panyushkin, the bookstores personnel membertold the Telegram news channel Rotonda.The broadcaster 78.
rushowed uniformed police officers speaking with the stores workers and shared pictures of its racks with the labels feminism and gender studies.The St.
Petersburg news website Fotankareported that the authorities were particularly thinking about books provided by the publishing home Ad Marginem, which publishes works by Sorokin, Sontag and other authors.Major Russian book shops Chitay-Gorod, Labirint and Respublika proactivelywithdrew LGBTQ+ books from their stocks in late 2022 as an act of self-censorship.
That December, President Vladimir Putinsigned a growth of his 2013 LGBT propaganda law which banned the screen of LGBTQ+ relationships and way of lives from books and other media.Since then, Russian reporters havecirculated lists of hundreds of books that they declared were prohibited under the brand-new LGBT propaganda law.
Russian authorities reject keeping a list of banned books.