Some Russian Libraries May See as Much as 70 Percent of Their Books Removed Because of Moscow’s Laws on ‘Foreign Agents’ and ‘Undesirable Organizations’

Paul Goble

            Staunton, June 10 – Rsusia’s Ministry of Digital Development says that new laws may require libraries across Russia to remove from their shelves from 15 to 70 percent of their books so that the don’t run afoul of regulations about handling those by “foreign agents” or “undesirable organizations.”

            The hardest hit, the ministry continues, will be municipal public libraries, whereas academic libraries are likely to suffer the smallest number of removals (nemoskva.net/2026/06/10/do-70-knig-mogut-izyat-iz-bibliotek-rossii-iz-za-zakonov-ob-inoagentah-i-nezhelatelnyh-organizacziyah/).

            And it warns that unless the laws are changed or simply not enforced, even Russian classics like Lermontov and Pushkin may find books of their works published by “undesirable organizations” among those taken from the shelves and thus away from public circulation among Russians.

            On the one hand, the ministry report appears to be directed at getting the laws changed; but on the other, the fact that it had to be prepared and has now been released shows just how much of a crackdown the Putin regime is carrying out on its libraries, one as absurd as those the Soviet authorities did earlier.