Russia pulls 30% of library books in Ural city over Soros Foundation funding

About 30 percent of the books in Yekaterinburg’s libraries will have to be pulled from circulation because they were purchased with money from billionaire George Soros’s foundation, the director of the city’s municipal library network told the city council.

“The main bulk of the books were purchased in the 1990s. We are now facing changes in legislation. We have to remove some books from the collection because they were bought with Soros’s money. That’s about 30 percent of our entire acquisitions,” Irina Cheremisinova said, responding to a question from Yabloko member Konstantin Kiselev about library acquisitions.

She said libraries in other regions are facing the same problem, and that changes in legislation are the cause.

At the same session, acting Culture Department director for Yekaterinburg Elena Sokolova said the libraries are currently short of books and the budget lacks funds to replenish their collections, the Russian news outlet Vechernie Vedomosti reported.

The Soros Foundation operated in Russia from the late 1980s, working primarily through the nonprofits Open Society and Sodeistviye. It supported the development of educational programs, provided assistance to students and scholars, funded the construction of internet centers, and allocated money for printing books and textbooks.

The foundation wound down its active operations in Russia in 2003. In 2015, Russia’s Prosecutor General’s Office declared it an “undesirable organization,” saying it was working to undermine Russia’s constitutional order.