The former top manager of Popcorn Books received a suspended sentence in the case of extremism

The Zamoskvoretsky court of Moscow imposed a four-year suspended sentence on Pavel Ivanov, the former sales director of the closed Popcorn Books publishing house, in a case involving participation in the activities of an extremist organization. This was reported to Izvestia on June 25 by a participant in the trial.

Earlier, the prosecutor requested the same time limit for Ivanov during the debate between the parties.

It is noted that on April 21, the management of Eksmo-AST holding was searched, and four people, including the CEO of Eksmo, Evgeny Kapiev, and the top manager of the publishing house, Alexandra Shipetina, were taken in for questioning. According to the Izvestia source, none of them has been detained.

Izvestia found out that the holding's management had developed a scheme to distribute books promoting LGBT (the movement is recognized as extremist and banned in the Russian Federation) among minors. We are talking about the novels "Summer in a Pioneer tie" and "What the Swallow is silent about" by Elena Prokasheva (pseudonym — Elena Malisova, recognized in the Russian Federation as a foreign agent) and Ekaterina Dudko (pseudonym — Katerina Silvanova, recognized in the Russian Federation as a foreign agent). There are other works involved in the case.

So, in 2018, Popkorn Books and Individual Print publishers, which are part of the Eksmo publishing group, began promoting LGBT literature aimed at teenagers with the investment support of the Irish book service. After a public scandal, the books were withdrawn from sale, and individuals and legal entities involved in their publication and distribution were recognized as foreign agents.

Thousands of copies of the novels withdrawn from sale were intended to be sold according to "gray" schemes, bypassing the legislation. Books stored in various bookselling outlets and basements of the publishing house were seized by security forces.

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Unpaid autopayments to extremist organizations and foreign agents threaten to be sent to prison

On June 19, a court in St. Petersburg detained six defendants in a criminal case on the organization of an extremist community. Three minors were among the accused. According to the investigation, a preventive measure was chosen against Andrian Ivanov, Alexei Trofimov, Sergei Borisov, as well as teenagers with hidden names.