Nikitin called the appearance of the list of books for seizure a provocation

NIZHNY NOVGOROD, February 21 Governor of the Nizhny Novgorod region Gleb Nikitin called information on the list of books subject to confiscation due to LGBT propaganda in his Telegram channel a provocation *.
Earlier, the Megamarket marketplace announced that it had withdrawn from sale on its site books that were included in the list of restrictions in connection with the law banning LGBT* propaganda. It was noted that the list contains more than 250 titles, including works by Plato, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Stephen King, Paulo Coelho, Oscar Wilde and others. President of the Association of Internet Trade Companies Artem Sokolov said that the list of books subject to seizure due to LGBT* propaganda was indeed developed in Russia, but is now not relevant and has no relation to reality. According to him, in this way the industry wanted to clearly demonstrate what could be covered by the law if clear criteria were not developed.

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» I read about a certain list of banned books, which included Dostoevsky and Plato. I can’t contain my emotions and remain silent. It is clear that this list was compiled in an unclear way, it is not known under what sauce it was distributed and what goals the author of the idea pursued. But it seems to me personally that he wanted to harm our country and undermine the authority of its institutions,” Nikitin wrote.

He expressed the hope that “this will receive a proper public assessment, and in our lives such excesses or provocations will happen as rarely as possible.”

In November 2023, the Supreme Court, at the request of the Russian Ministry of Justice, recognized the “international public movement of LGBT*” as an extremist organization and banned its activities in Russia. The law that established a ban on LGBT* propaganda among Russian citizens — both adults and minors — came into force in December 2022.
According to Russian legislation, owners of audiovisual services and television channels are obliged to independently identify and exclude from their resources and from the air all materials with LGBT* propaganda, as well as ensure the distribution of audiovisual works demonstrating LGBT* with the “18+” sign.