Eksmo CEO and three other executives questioned in Russia’s case over LGBTQ-themed books

Russian law enforcement officers searched the offices of executives at the publishing house Eksmo in Moscow, according to Ren TV, a pro-Kremlin television channel close to Russia’s security services. The network published footage showing a black minivan parked outside Eksmo’s Moscow office on Zorge Street, with unidentified individuals — believed to be security officers — stepping out of it.

Sources at other outlets, including TASS, the Russian business news outlet RBC, and the Russian business daily Kommersant, later confirmed the searches. The Russian Telegram news channel Ostorozhno Novosti reported that the Eksmo office continued to operate normally. A correspondent for the outlet said that on the afternoon of April 21, employees were calmly heading out for lunch and no police or official security vehicles were visible outside the building. Some members of Eksmo’s management learned about the searches from media reports, Ostorozhno Novosti said.

The Telegram channel Mash, which is also linked to Russian security services, published footage showing boxes being carried out of the Eksmo office and loaded into an unmarked car.

Eksmo CEO Yevgeny Kapyev has been detained, according to media reports. A source at Kommersant in law enforcement said Kapyev is being questioned in a criminal case involving the organization of an “extremist” organization’s activities. The maximum penalty under the relevant charge is 10 years in prison, the law states.

Security officials are conducting searches at several Eksmo locations as part of a criminal case involving the distribution of LGBTQ+ literature, TASS reported. Ren TV cited the same grounds. Kapyev was detained as a suspect, RBC reported. Investigators believe he was involved in the distribution of novels by Yelena Malisova and Katerina Silvanova: Leto v pionerskom galstuke (“Summer in a Pioneer Tie”) and O chem molchit Lastochka (“What the Swallow Keeps Silent About”).

The Telegram channel Mash and BBC Russia directly linked the searches to the so-called “book publishers’ case.” Mash said that other defendants in the case — former Eksmo employees — gave testimony against the publisher, after which security officials arrived at Eksmo’s warehouse and office with an order to seize banned materials.

During the investigation of the “book publishers’ case,” it emerged that proceeds from the sale of banned books had gone into Eksmo’s accounts and that management was aware of this, sources at BBC Russia in the book industry said.

Book industry figures had previously told Meduza that they linked several Kazakhstani publishing houses to the Eksmo-AST group, which Eksmo is part of. Those publishers released books that can no longer be published in Russia due to wartime censorship and the tightening of anti-LGBTQ+ legislation. It is unclear whether those are the publishers the BBC Russia source had in mind when speaking about sales of banned books.

After the Popcorn Books and Individuum employees were detained, Kapyev left Russia for a time but returned several months later, having concluded that since a year had passed without anyone touching him, everything was fine, one of BBC Russia’s sources said.

Meduza’s sources in the book industry said that after the first searches and detentions in the “book publishers’ case” in 2025, nearly all of the holding’s management went into hiding. Many executives left Russia for a time, sources said. They also suggested that additional defendants would emerge in the case.

Two more Eksmo senior managers have been detained in addition to Kapyev, Mash reported. Among those detained is the publisher’s editor-in-chief, Alexandra Shipetina. The identity of the third person is not yet known.

Oleg Novikov, president and controlling shareholder of the Eksmo-AST publishing group, confirmed that Kapyev and several other Eksmo employees had been brought to the Investigative Committee, the Russian federal investigating authority, for questioning in the “book publishers’ case.” No investigative actions were conducted at the publisher’s office, Novikov said, adding that the company had no additional information.

Eksmo-AST later clarified that those brought to the Investigative Committee for questioning included Kapyev, Eksmo’s chief financial officer, the publisher’s distribution director, and the deputy editor for commercial affairs.

Eksmo is part of Russia’s largest publishing group, Eksmo-AST. Eksmo itself became the country’s leading publisher by number of titles released in 2024.

Update. Eksmo stated that reports circulating in connection with media coverage of CEO Yevgeny Kapyev’s detention do not correspond to reality and require clarification. The publisher’s press service said Kapyev and three other Eksmo employees are being questioned over the sale of Popcorn Books titles “showing signs of LGBTQ+ propaganda.” The company said it assumed the questioning was connected to testimony given by the Popcorn Books employees charged in the case.