The Main Directorate of the Investigative Committee reports that a case has been opened against the writer Boris Akunin (Grigory Chkhartishvili) for calls for terrorism (Article 205.2 of the Criminal Code), as well as for disseminating “fakes” about the army (Article 207.3 of the Criminal Code).
The investigation plans to put the writer on the wanted list. The Investigative Committee’s report does not say why exactly Akunin became a defendant in criminal cases.
Today Boris Akunin was included in the list of “terrorists and extremists” of Rosfinmonitoring. Before this, the largest network “Read-Gorod” and the service “Liters” refused to sell his books.
The writer himself, commenting on these events, said: “I wanted to write something disparaging in connection with my announcement in the Russian Federation a terrorist — like “what does it matter to me who these little guys in their Kushchevka say I am?” But it's not about me. And this is not Kushchevka. This is my unfortunate homeland, which has fallen under the rule of criminals. The people living there — even those who have not yet realized it — are hostages. What awaits them next?
Akunin continued: “A seemingly minor event, a book ban, the declaration of some writer as a terrorist, is in fact an important milestone. Books have not been banned in Russia since Soviet times. Writers haven't been accused of terrorism since the Great Terror. This is not a bad dream, this is happening to Russia in reality, in fact.”