November 6, 2015

Russia arrests Ukrainian library director over ‘extremist’ books

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MOSCOW – Following a raid in which they say scores of “extremist” books were seized, Russian investigators have announced that the head of the Ukrainian Literature Library in Moscow has been arrested on suspicion of “inciting ethnic hatred.”

Investigative Committee spokesman Vladimir Markin said on October 29 that investigators were seeking court authorization to criminally charge Natalya Sharina, saying she circulated banned publications authored by Dmytro Korchynsky, a radical Ukrainian nationalist, between 2011 and 2015.

Police conducted hours-long searches of the library on October 28, seizing up to 170 publications, according to local news agencies. Ms. Sharina’s home was also searched, as was the home of Valery Semenenko, who heads a Ukrainian diaspora organization named Ukrainians of Moscow.

Ms. Sharina could face up to five years in jail.

The Ukrainian Culture Ministry has called for Ms. Sharina’s immediate release, describing the raids and arrest as “the latest brazen Kremlin act designed to frighten the Ukrainian ethnic minority in the Russian Federation.”

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told TASS news agency that the arrest and raids at the library were “not on the agenda” for discussion.

The raids were purportedly launched after an appeal from Dmitry Zakharov, a municipal deputy of Moscow’s Yakimanka district. Speaking to Govorit Moskva radio, Mr. Zakharov said that “there was information that extremist materials were being stored in the library… so I appealed to the authorities.”

Video footage shared on YouTube showed a masked police officer in combat fatigues walking out of the Ukrainian library on October 28 with an assault rifle slung over his shoulder, holding two filled plastic bags.

Mr. Zakharov posted photographs of publications being seized during the raid on his social network page. They included a Ukrainian children’s cartoon that he said bore the slogan “Glory to Ukraine, Glory to the Heroes.”

This work is not on the list of banned books in Russia, but appears to contain the red-and-black flag of the far-right Ukrainian group Pravyi Sektor, which is a banned organization in Russia. Referring to Ukrainians in derisive, coarse language, Mr. Zakharov also posted photographs of books about World War II-era Ukrainian nationalist Stepan Bandera.

Mr. Semenenko, whose apartment was searched on October 28, told RFE/RL, “I was very distressed that my apartment was turned upside down. These people are absolutely not specialists in literature, but bone-breakers!”

“They took books and memory sticks belonging to my daughter, who is a city planner, and took my wife’s laptop,” he continued. “Then, as soon as we left home, an NTV television crew turned up. My wife drove them out,” he said.

A criminal investigation was launched against Mr. Semenenko and the Ukrainian Literature Library in 2010, leading police to search the library for extremist publications. Charges of inciting ethnic hatred related to the alleged circulation of anti-Russian books were dropped in late 2011, however, for lack of evidence.

ADDENDUM: RFE/RL reported on October 31 that Ms. Sharina had fallen ill in custody and that she claimed Russian authorities had framed her by planting extremist books in her collection.

“She said they had planted a large batch of books during the searches,” Russian rights activist Zoya Svetova told the Agence France-Presse news agency on October 30 after speaking with Ms. Sharina.

While Ms. Sharina was not present at the library when it was raided by armed, masked police, who carted off about 200 books, her deputy, Vitaly Krikunenko, said the library did not keep Mr. Korchynsky’s books and called the accusations against her “absolute nonsense.”

Ms. Sharina denied the charges in the Taganka district court in Moscow on October 30. “I didn’t do anything illegal,” she said. “The library staff examined the new arrivals carefully and as soon as one or another titles was added to the list of extremist literature, we immediately excluded them from general public access.”

Library employees say any extremist books purportedly found by investigators were planted to create a pretext for the raid.

Tatyana Muntyan, an employee, said she had personally seen investigators plant banned books in the library the day before the raid. “They brought books with them which were included on the list of extremist literature,” Ms. Muntyan told Reuters. “I saw it. The books they brought did not have our stamp inside them. They planted these books.”

The investigative committee did not respond to the charges.

Meanwhile, Ms. Sharina fell into a health crisis while under detention, suffering several bouts of extreme high blood pressure which required treatment by medical personnel, her lawyers said.

Russian news agencies said the court decided on October 30 to put Ms. Sharina under house arrest and charge her with incitement of ethnic hatred. That crime can result in up to four years in prison.

RFE/RL’s Russian Service contributed to this report.

The text above has been abridged. To read the full story see http://www.rferl.org/content/russia-ukrainian-literature-library-extremist-books-director-arrested/ 27333929.html. 

To read the updated information cited at the end of the story see http://www.rferl.org/content/ukraine-librarian-detained-moscow-falls-ill-claims-was-framed/27337009.html.

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