Russia's biggest bookstore chain spent 100 million rubles pulling and shredding 'banned' books

This piece has two parts: the news with sources, followed by the Sardaana News editorial position.

What happened

Russia’s largest bookstore chain, Chitai-Gorod — Bukvoed, has spent about 100 million rubles in recent years pulling from sale and destroying books that do not comply with new laws, CEO Alexander Brychkin told RBC (ForPost, Meduza, Kommersant).

The books cannot be returned to suppliers and are written off as a loss. They cannot be thrown away either — they are treated as “toxic waste” and destroyed in an industrial shredder on camera at the chain’s expense, on top of the costs of clearing shelves and warehouse logistics.

Why

The drivers are laws banning “propaganda” of drugs and of “non-traditional sexual relations”; the Russian authorities have designated the “LGBT movement” extremist and banned it. Books mentioning drugs are often labeled and shrink-wrapped after being listed in a Russian Book Union registry — the chain labeled about 2 million books at its own cost (“tens of millions” of rubles). Books with “LGBT risk” can be pulled after a sudden “expert review”; Brychkin says sellers get no fair chance to comply and wants advance notice and verified experts.

Stephen King’s “It” was pulled after a deputy’s complaint (ForPost). Books by Boris Akunin and Lyudmila Ulitskaya remain in the warehouse (Meduza); in October 2026 Roskomnadzor banned novels by Olga Ptitseva amid “LGBT propaganda” claims. Publishers self-censor, cutting passages or blacking out pages (ForPost).

Sardaana News editorial position

Because of the war against Ukraine and intensifying political repression against anti-war people, the opposition, and also migrants and LGBT people, the Russian authorities destroy books they dislike — Orwell and works like his, for example. Russia spends millions of rubles on it: 100 million from a single chain is the visible price of the purge.

Bringing Orwell-like books and any LGBT-themed books into Russia is banned. A passenger found with such books at airport passport control faces an extremism charge and years in prison.

This is the regime’s war on free thought: it shreds and burns culture while it burns people in Ukraine. The shredder on camera is the bookstore version of the same repression that fills prisons for speech. Our criticism is aimed at the Russian state and its censorship machine, not at bookstore staff forced to comply.