Russia's Chitai-Gorod-Bukvoed spent about $1.2 million over recent years disposing of books deemed to violate censorship laws, CEO Alexander Brychkin told RBC, The Moscow Times reported Wednesday.
The amount, about 100 million rubles, covers storage, transport and payments to a specialized service for destroying the books, Brychkin said. He said they cannot go into ordinary garbage and described them as “toxic waste.” In the process he outlined, a contractor uses an industrial shredder while the destruction is filmed. The chain covers those bills itself, he said: “No one is reimbursing our expenses.”
Separate from that sum, the retailer spent tens of millions of rubles on anti-drug labels for 2 million books, Brychkin said. He argued that booksellers face legal exposure without time to adjust their inventory after an expert evaluation of a title appears.
Brychkin said a book may comply with Russian law when it first reaches stores, but a later evaluation can bring liability. “At the exact moment this evaluation appears, they begin to hold us liable,” he told RBC. The evaluation’s issuer is not identified in The Moscow Times account.
He proposed a system to alert booksellers when a particular title enters state review, so they can act earlier and reduce legal risks, the outlet reported. The proposal was not described as an adopted policy.
The Moscow Times also reported that stores and libraries have removed many titles in the years since Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, amid growing restrictions on speech and the press.
