Russian monarchy advocate says her civil rights were trampled at a Moscow book fair

Radio personality Anna Shafran, who has her own show on Vesti FM, where she also co-hosts a morning broadcast with pro-Kremlin pundit Vladimir Solovyov, has accused Moscow’s 20th “Non/Fiction” book fair of censorship for refusing to grant her stage time to promote her new book, which advocates the return of Russia’s monarchy.

Apparently equally committed to civil rights and tsarism, Shafran addressed a video on Facebook to Irina Prokhorova, a member of the book fair’s expert council, citing the Russian Constitution’s ban on censorship.

In an interview on Sunday, Prokhorova told Govorit Moskva that the book fair simply doesn’t have enough time and space to accommodate every author who wants to promote their work. “Censorship is when they don’t print the book for political reasons. Given that her book is published, I think any talk of censorship is inappropriate,” Prokhorova said.