Updated

Libraries in Moscow and the Arkhangelsk and Leningrad regions have begun pulling Alexander Pelevin's novel Pokrov-17 from open shelves, Ksenia Sobchak's Telegram channel reported, as relayed by Meduza. Readers can still request the book, which is being removed from reading rooms because its cover carries a quote from literary critic Galina Yuzefovich, who was added to Russia's registry of foreign agents in July 2026. The edition in question was published by Gorodets in 2021. A Moscow library employee told the channel that librarians check the foreign agents registry weekly, along with the federal list of extremist materials, a list of extremists and terrorists, and an industry list of books that mention drugs, though not every library does such checks and a St. Petersburg library said it does not run them. The Yuzefovich quote comes from a 2019 review she wrote for Meduza of a different Pelevin novel, published in 2018. The sources gave no official explanation from the libraries.