Russian book fair blames publisher for canceling Navalny spokeswoman’s novel presentation
Following the controversy surrounding the cancellation of a scheduled presentation of a novel by Kira Yarmysh (the spokeswoman for imprisoned opposition politician Alexey Navalny), the organizers of the Non/Fiction international book fair have released a statement attributing the decision to the publishing group Eksmo-AST.
According to the statement, AST-Eksmo — the parent company of Corpus publishing house, which released Yarmysh’s book, “Incredible Incidents in Women’s Cell No. 3,” in 2020 — canceled the presentation at the last minute.
“As for the replacement of the presentation of Kira Yarmysh’s book with a presentation of the book “Jerusalem” by Alan Moore, [it was] made at the last minute before sending the catalog of events to print on the initiative of the management of AST-Eksmo, we believe that the holding AST-Eksmo, the largest player in the Russian book market, has the right to determine its own program at the fair.”
Yarmysh responded to the statement on Twitter, calling it a “lie.” As she recalls, on Monday, March 22, the chief editor of the Corpus publishing house, Varvara Gornostaeva, specified that the book fair’s organizers unofficially asked Eksmo-AST to scrap the presentation.
Kira Yarmysh is currently under house arrest as a suspect in the so-called “sanitary case.” Non/Fiction cancelling the presentation of her novel provoked backlash from a number of participants, including well-known Russian writers and literary critics, who criticized the decision and, in some cases, chose to boycott the book fair entirely.
The Sanitary Case
Ten of Alexey Navalny’s associates, including Kira Yarmysh, are currently under house arrest as suspects in a criminal case launched after the “Freedom for Navalny!” rally in Moscow on January 23. They stand accused of inciting people to violate sanitary and epidemiological regulations amid the coronavirus pandemic. According to the Moscow authorities, 19 people with the coronavirus took part in the January 23rd rally, thus creating a threat of mass infection.