Well-known Russian Writer suspected of “extremist” statements
The Russian Federation Investigative Committee’s Moscow Department has initiated a check into the novel by Boris Akunin “All the World’s a Theatre”. Senior Investigator Tsepelev is looking for “statements of an extremist nature”. The book, published in 2009, is one of a number about the adventures of Erast Fandorin. It would appear that the investigation was undertaken after some kind of “denunciation”.
Boris Akunin writes in his blog that the Director of the Zakharov Publishing Company, Irina Bogat, has received a summons to a Moscow branch of the Investigative Committee. Ms Bogat has also been asked to provide a copy of the contract signed with Boris Akunin, a copy of the book and Akunin’s contact details.
The novel is to be checked following a statement received from a Mr A.M. Voevodin.
According to the writer, after receiving a copy of the summons,
“I, of course, began feverishly looking through the book. Could my bestial hatred for my Motherland, and its title nation, my people-hating views, have really spilled out in some way?
And I found that place. I found it, and my blood turned cold.
Page 177, lines 10-12!
O how could I have so forgotten all caution?!
I won’t give that monstrous quote here so as to not further exacerbate my guilt. Particularly not before the Day of National Unity, on the eve of the patriotic march of healthy national forces.
That’s all, I’m going now to burn my coded messages, destroy the evidence.
Perhaps my “contact details” have already been ascertained through complex investigative operations, and a unit is hurtling here now to seize me.”
The “utterance” which some vigilant citizen would appear to have noted – and reported – is as follows:
“Masa objected, saying that Russians don’t understand such subtleties, they’re incapable of even distinguishing udon noodles from soba. He was right, of course”.
Photos from HRO.org
Boris Akunin’s blog (in Russian) can be found here: http://borisakunin.livejournal.com
