Respublika and Chitai-gorod bookstores have withdrawn from sale some of the books describing “non-traditional relationships” because of a new law signed by Vladimir Putin banning LGBT “propaganda”. This was reported to the correspondent of "Novaya Gazeta Europe" employees of retail outlets.
The offices of the companies ordered the removal of LGBT-themed books from stores, including “Summer in a Pioneer Tie” and “What the Swallow Is Silent About” by Elena Malisova and Katerina Silvanova. At the same time, networks are still unclear on the criteria by which works can be recognized as promoting “non-traditional relationships”.
The LitRes service, in turn, will not only withdraw books from sale, but also ask authors to rewrite texts so that they can be returned to sale, Yevgeny Selivanov, director of the content development department of the LitRes group of companies, told RBC. The company has already sent letters to some authors "requesting to check their works for LGBT propaganda." If they don’t wait for a response from the author, then the service itself will carefully analyze the text and make a decision. Part of the books on this principle have already been removed from the shelves, said Selivanov. The manager clarified that now the books that were recommended to be rewritten by the authors because of the possible “propaganda” in them are no more than 1% of the entire catalog of the service.
He also claims that there are still no clear criteria by which a book can fall under the new law; the company has consulted with lawyers.
On December 5, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a law completely banning the "propaganda" of non-traditional sexual relations, gender reassignment and pedophilia among people of any age on the Internet, media, books, movies and advertising. Now for Russians there are fines under this article – from 50 to 800 thousand rubles, for legal entities the amount of the fine can reach 10 million rubles. Foreigners for "propaganda" LGBT can now be expelled from the country.
The Insider previously noted that the document lacks a definition of the word "propaganda". This allows deputies to come up with new bans that will probably affect not only media reports, posts on social networks and video games : the current version of the law will allow fines, and in case of repeated violations, punish with real terms everyone whose lifestyle seems wrong to the authorities.
