ONF called for a moratorium on sales of Polozkova’s books in connection with her words about the attempt on Prilepin

A letter to the President of the Russian Book Union, Sergei Stepashin, signed by the head of the executive committee of the All-Russian People’s Front (ONF) Mikhail Kuznetsov, contains a call to “consider the possibility of contacting book retail chains and stores with a proposal to express their civil position and introduce a voluntary moratorium on the sale of Vera’s books Polozkova.

Poet Vera Polozkova (born 1986) is the author of a number of books for children and adults. In 2022, after the start of a special military operation, she left Russia. The ONF’s attention was drawn to Ms. Polozkova’s commentary on the assassination attempt on the writer and politician Zakhar Prilepin in May 2023: Mr. Prilepin was wounded, Alexander Shubin, who was with him, died, and who was arrested on charges of a terrorist attack admitted that he acted on instructions from the Ukrainian special services. Mrs. Polozkova, who in 2017 publicly promised to open “a bottle of the best champagne” when Zakhar Prilepin “finally gets his head shot off,” after the assassination attempt, stated that the perpetrators “did not reach the champagne … Maximum beer.”

“The poetess lives abroad and makes such cynical and inhumane statements, while Vera Polozkova’s books are actively sold in Russian bookstores, and she continues to receive royalties for this,” wrote Mr. Kuznetsov. justifying terrorism and the murder of Russian citizens is morally unacceptable.”