Russia’s Justice Ministry has added Patriot, the posthumous memoir of the late opposition politician Alexey Navalny, to its list of banned “extremist” materials.
According to the Justice Ministry’s website, the Russian-language edition of Patriot published by the Lithuanian printing house One Book Publishing in 2024 was added to Russia’s federal list of “extremist” materials on July 30.
The decision to ban Navalny’s memoir was handed down by the Leningrad Regional Court on June 9, the Justice Ministry’s website says.
Commenting on the decision, the director of Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation, Ivan Zhdanov, called it “an expected action from Putin.” “There’s no liability for reading the book yet,” he added, sharing a link to an online edition of Patriot accessible to readers in Russia. “I believe that now even more people will read it.”
Navalny’s former chief of staff Leonid Volkov also weighed in with a post on Telegram. “Putin was afraid, is afraid, and will always be afraid of Navalny,” he wrote. “[It’s] a very good book, you should definitely read it.”
Earlier this month, Russian lawmakers passed a new piece of legislation that introduces fines for accessing “extremist content.” The law, which President Vladimir Putin has yet to sign, is expected to enter into force on September 1.
Navalny’s memoir was published in October 2024, eight months after he died in a remote Russian prison. It has since been translated into more than 20 languages and was awarded two prizes at the 2025 British Book Awards, including Book of The Year.
