Russia’s government wants to legalize already-published books by ‘foreign agents’ and ‘undesirable’ organizations (they make up over half of library holdings)

Russia’s Digital Development Ministry is in talks with the Justice Ministry, the Interior Ministry, and the Presidential Administration over ways to achieve the “legalization” of books by “undesirable” organizations and “foreign agents” that were published before those individuals or organizations received those designations, Vladimir Grigoryev, director of the ministry’s department for state support of periodicals and book publishing, told the Russian newspaper Kommersant.

He pointed to the Soros Foundation and the World Wildlife Fund — both designated “undesirable” in Russia — as examples, noting that in the 1990s the two organizations funded publications of Russian classics and “the best examples of local-history literature.”

“Leading universities, including Yale, Berkeley, and Stanford, which publish textbooks on physics, astronomy, and mathematics, have also been designated “undesirable.” So, if the current law were applied literally, they would have to be banned and removed from libraries and bookstores. […] That’s why we believe it’s necessary to discuss how the law is enforced, or to change the current legislation,” Grigoryev said.

A source at the Russian Book Union told Kommersant that libraries have been “put in an extremely difficult position,” since they must now pull from open access even publications where a “foreign agent” or “undesirable” organization played only an “indirect role”: as translator, illustrator, compiler, or author of the foreword. That, the source said, creates “a risk of mass removal of socially significant publications.”

A Digital Development Ministry report summarizing 2025 found that the current legislation is having a negative effect on municipal libraries. If the laws on “foreign agents” and “undesirable” organizations were enforced literally, the report says, libraries would have to pull between 50% and 70% of their holdings from open access, and academic libraries between 10% and 15%.

The Justice Ministry confirmed to Kommersant that it is taking part in the discussions. A source in the Presidential Administration said the initiative remains at the interagency discussion stage and that “there’s no finished solution yet.”

Russia’s book market has faced large-scale censorship since the start of the full-scale war. Books by authors the Russian authorities have designated “foreign agents” and “extremists” are being pulled from bookstores and libraries, and publishers have had to strike any references to the war and any scenes involving queer relationships from their books.

In 2025, the “publishers’ case” began, with employees of Russian publishing houses accused of “distributing queer literature.” Courts handed down verdicts against the case’s defendants this past summer. The case was triggered by the novel Leto v pionerskom galstuke “A Summer in a Pioneer’s Necktie” — one of the biggest Russian bestsellers of recent years, published by Popcorn Books in 2021.