Natalia Kryukova, a mathematics teacher in a secondary school, previously conducted psychological-linguistic examinations in cases against repression researcher Yuri Dmitriev, 'Memorial'*, the group Pussy Riot, and 'Jehovah's Witnesses'**. As reported by TASS, Kryukova found eight episodes of 'pornographic nature involving two underage girls' in Sorokin's novel. 'Reading the novel was more than unpleasant for me,' the 'expert' summarized her testimony in court.
The defense of 'EKSMO' and 'Pareto-print', in turn, emphasized that editing authors' books contradicts the principle of civil circulation. Previously, due to the publication of Sorokin's novel, a similar fine under the same administrative article was imposed on the publishing house 'AST'.
The maximum penalty for legal entities under the article charged to the publishers is an administrative fine of up to 5 million rubles with confiscation of materials or items with pornographic images of minors and equipment used for producing such materials or suspension of activities for 90 days with confiscation of such materials.
The defendants' lawyers told the agency that they would appeal the fines in the Moscow City Court.
Vladimir Sorokin's novel 'Legacy', released in 2023, sparked a wave of personal and anonymous complaints to the Investigative Committee due to its alleged 'LGBT propaganda'**. After this, it disappeared from the search results of several online stores, including 'Labyrinth', 'Wildberries', and 'Chitai-gorod'. All this happened after a report from the 'outraged public' to the Investigative Committee. The appeal is signed by 1500 writers and readers 'concerned with Russian prose' demanding an investigation of the publishing house and the novel 'Legacy' itself for 'propaganda' of LGBT and 'violence against children'. Additional claims against Sorokin's work are that the dystopia was released during the war, which may appear 'as a mockery of the fighters defending the Russian Federation'.
* Recognized as a 'foreign agent' in Russia.
** Recognized as 'extremist' organizations in Russia.