The Russian State Duma is considering a bill that would restrict library access to works by “foreign agents” in public libraries. Although the Duma went on break in August without passing the amendments, some libraries decided to “play it safe” in advance.

If I take a book and never return it, in other words, steal it, what should I do according to the rules?” Such questions have been addressed more and more frequently to librarian Natalia from a small town in the Moscow region. In her opinion, this is how readers try to save certain books or add them to their personal libraries while they still have the chance. “People ask us, ‘have you written off anything yet? Write it off into our caring hands,’” Natalia says. According to her, some libraries have already started getting rid of books by so-called foreign agents, even though there are no such legal requirements.

A review of Eastern Europe since 1989. Between Loosened Authoritarianism and unconsolidated democracy. By: Mykola Riabchuk. Publisher, Studium Europy Wschodniej, Warsaw University, Warsaw, 2020.

Interview with Serhii Plokhii, the director of Ukrainian Research Institute at Harvard University and the author of The Man with a Poison Gun. Interviewer: Marta Dyczok.