The State Duma Committee on Culture will prepare a draft law on the circulation of books by foreign agents

They plan to start with libraries

On March 20, a meeting of the Culture Committee was to be held in the State Duma with the participation of Minister Olga Lyubimova. This event did not take place – this morning there was no mention of it in the “Upcoming Events” section of the Russian Parliament website. The MK correspondent found out that the meeting was postponed to 10 am on March 27, but what caused the postponement can only be speculated. Perhaps this is all due to the indisposition of the Chairman of the Committee, Elena Yampolskaya (“I spent the whole winter without a single sneeze, and with the onset of spring I catch a cold every ten days,” the deputy admitted in her personal Telegram channel).

However, Elena Anatolyevna still held a working meeting (which did not involve broadcasting to a wide audience) on changes to the law “On Librarianship,” albeit “in the voice of Leonid Volodarsky.”

Whether Yampolskaya has a cold or not, this circumstance has little effect on legislative activity in the cultural sphere. Answering the question that she was “working closely now,” in her “cart” she disclosed information about the almost completed final edition of the text of the draft law on the special procedure for the circulation of books by foreign agents in libraries. Next, the Duma will separately regulate the sales of IA literature on electronic resources and in bookstores.

We admit that many readers expect deputies to put these books in order.

Yampolskaya previously stated that librarians are “gladly ready to get rid of” books whose authors are included in the lists of the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation or have been prosecuted, but “they cannot yet do this legally.” At the same time, at one of the meetings of the Culture Committee, Sergei Mironov’s comrade-in-arms, Elena Drapeko, said that “not all works of terrorists and enemies of the people are so harmful” – and none of the colleagues present protested against this statement. Thus, it cannot be ruled out that the future law will clearly separate the anti-Russian statements and steps of Mr. Akunin (recognized as a foreign agent, included in the list of terrorists and extremists) from his novels about Fandorin, a hero who serves in the pre-revolutionary police and counterintelligence and does not consider himself an opponent of his Fatherland.

Flies – separately, cutlets – separately, it seems that this is what the well-known phraseology says. But it is still difficult to imagine tools for such a distinction, other than the examination of works for the presence of “harmful” elements.