Deputies proposed legislatively to remove books by foreign agents and extremists from libraries

A group of deputies led by the chairman of the culture committee, Elena Yampolskaya, submitted draft amendments to the federal law “On Librarianship” to the State Duma. The explanatory note to it states that documents created by foreign agents, extremists and terrorists are now freely displayed on the stands and shelves of public libraries and made available for temporary use.

Such literature, according to the authors of the initiative, is directed “against the security of the Russian Federation.” It is not specified which works should be classified as such, but the corresponding list will be established in the future by the Ministry of Culture, the explanatory document says. The document proposes limiting access of library visitors to such literature.

In addition, the bill proposes to regulate the situation with library collections in the territories of the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics, as well as in the Zaporozhye and Kherson regions. “The library collections located on the territories of these constituent entities of the Russian Federation, over the years of their presence as part of Ukraine, were stocked with Ukrainian propaganda literature and books glorifying nationalists and traitors,” follows from the explanatory note.

Yulia Yurasova