Russian booksellers face legal minefield over new ‘foreign agent’ rules

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ST PETERSBURG (Reuters) -In a bookstore in the Russian city of St Petersburg, employees are painstakingly cutting out labels, placing them on the covers of books and sealing the volumes in clear plastic wrapping.

The wording on each slip of paper reads: “THIS MATERIAL (INFORMATION) HAS BEEN PRODUCED BY A FOREIGN AGENT OR CONCERNS THE ACTIVITY OF A FOREIGN AGENT.”

Under a law that came into force on September 1, people who have been designated by Russia as foreign agents are banned from educational activity or producing “information products for minors” – a broad wording that could potentially apply to books, although books by “agents” are not banned outright.

Many well-known writers, including novelist Dmitry Glukhovsky, have been placed on Russia’s foreign agent list, which includes hundreds of individuals and entities accused by the authorities of conducting subversive activity with support from abroad.

The designation predates the war in Ukraine and has been widely applied to activists, politicians, journalists, NGOs and others who have fallen foul of authorities.

For Elena Neshcheret, a manager at St Petersburg bookstore Vo Ves Golos (At the Top of My Voice), the legal situation is fraught with “unpredictable traps”.

“It turns out that we now have to keep track not only of laws concerning printed materials,” she told Reuters. “We have to track, as it were, all the laws in the cultural sphere, and some concerning trade. And all this has got terribly complicated.”

Neshcheret said the store, which has five employees, devotes 3-4 shifts per month to the labelling and wrapping of “foreign agent” books to make sure they are clearly identified to customers.

“We have not had any precedents yet for someone being fined for incorrectly selling books by foreign agents, but let’s say there is a tense wait for something to happen. Naturally no one wants to be the first,” she said.

She believes the bookshop is complying with the law.

Some stores, however, have taken a safety-first approach and organised discount sales of such books before the new law came into force.

The Russian Book Union, an industry body, says books by foreign agents represent a high risk for booksellers, and has warned them that they may be subject to unscheduled inspections by the authorities.

Glukhovsky, the “foreign agent” author who was sentenced in absentia in 2023 to eight years in prison for spreading false information about the Russian armed forces, told Reuters the latest move was part of a creeping campaign by the authorities to silence dissent.

“The purpose of that is to isolate from the public field, from the media, all people who criticize the war, or (President) Vladimir Putin himself, or the government’s policies on any matter, and turn them into pariahs,” said the writer, who left Russia before the war.

Russia says its foreign agent law is a necessary measure to protect society from hostile outside interference amid the biggest confrontation with the West since the Cold War.

Of four customers interviewed by Reuters while shopping in St Petersburg, three said they were firmly opposed to any banning of books.

“I think that banning books, as our history shows, has never led to anything good,” said a young woman who gave her name as Anastasia. “And I think that if some books prompt questions or fears, there are other ways to counter their influence, apart from an outright ban.”

Another woman, Irina, said censorship was “probably normal” and had existed throughout the ages. But she added: “I think a book will always find its reader. It’s impossible to stop this.”

(Reporting by Reuters in St Petersburg; additional reporting and writing by Mark Trevelyan in London; editing by Alexandra Hudson)