Russia has placed the popular detective novelist Grigory Chkhartishvili—known under the pen name Boris Akunin—on its register of “extremists and terrorists” for his criticism of Moscow’s war in Ukraine.You can read the whole story here.
Since the Kremlin ordered Russian troops to march on Kyiv on 24 February last year, a crackdown on dissent has hit the arts and books by authors critical of Moscow have disappeared from bookshops in the country.
Chkhartishvili, 67, is known for his historical detective novels and his longstanding criticism of President Vladimir Putin.
Russia’s financial watchdog, Rosfinmonitoring, said on
Monday that his name had been listed on the “terrorist and extremists” list while the country’s Investigative Committee announced it had opened a criminal investigation into Akunin for allegedly “justifying terrorism and publicly spreading fake information” on the Russian army.
Mystery readers will recognize Akunin as the author of the very popular Erast Fandorin detective novels, set in 19th-century Russia. That series began with The Winter Queen, originally published in 1998. If I’m not mistaken, the most recent English-translated Fandorin tale was 2019’s Not Saying Goodbye. The books have featured in two of CrimeReads contributor Paul French’s “Crime and the City” columns, one covering stories set in Moscow, the other focusing on St. Petersburg-based crime fiction.
With the author facing Putin’s pettish wrath, now might be a valuable time to purchase one of his books and thereby contribute to his defense fund. It is gift-buying season and all …
READ MORE: “Russia Adds Prominent Writer Akunin to ‘Extremists and Terrorists’ Registry” (The Moscow Times).
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