Russian authorities do not like the free sale of books about the war in Ukraine.
Yevgeny Bogdanov,
Anna Mattila
The Russian communications surveillance service Roskomnadzor has added the prohibited information of the Finnish bookstore Ruslania to the register. Ruslania is the only bookstore in Finland focused on Russian-language literature. It is important for Russian-speakers in Finland, because books and magazines cannot be ordered from Russia because of the war. Goodreads, a service owned by Amazon, is also on Roskomnadzor’s list.
The Russian authorities especially do not like the free sale of books about the war in Ukraine. According to Roskomnadzor, the bookstore sells “both LGBT propaganda and books destabilizing the Russian state and false information about the activities of the country’s armed forces.” The Russian authorities are also dissatisfied with the fact that Ruslania, which operates in Finland, does not report that “some of the writers are agents of a foreign power in Russia”.
Roskomnadzor threatens to block access to Ruslania’s website in Russia.
Kauppa commented to that it does not intend to meet the requirements of Russian legislation.
– Roskomnadzor’s decision to add the website of the Finnish bookstore Ruslania to the register of prohibited information in Russia does not affect our selection, nor the information about our books. And as before, the selection offered by Ruslania and information about books is only affected by Finnish legislation, Ruslania’s sales and personnel manager Viktoria Petrovskaya tells.
Since the start of the war, the Russian authorities have restricted access to several Finnish websites, including the websites of , Ilta-Sanom, Helsingin Sanomat and the Finnish Association of Ukrainians. In addition, Russia declared the community of anti-war Russians living in Finland and EastCham Finland as “undesirable organizations”.