Ridero withdrew from publication a book with an excerpt about Skochylenko’s partner

The publishing service Ridero removed the documentary book from publication because of an excerpt about the partner of Sasha Skochylenko, an artist arrested for an article about fakes about the Russian army. “Agency. Novosti” writes about it.

The service sent Masha Pushkina, the author of the book “Bipolarians. Without Masks”, a letter with a request to edit a passage in which Skochylenko says that he lives with his girlfriend Sonia and that their homophobia “completed” them. “I still dream of marrying Sonya and spending my honeymoon in Amsterdam,” Skochylenko’s words are quoted in the book.

The representative of Ridero replied to the “Agency” that the service publishes everything that is not prohibited by the laws of Russia. “If a new law is adopted, our task will be to warn the authors about it and thereby ensure that they do not commit offenses out of ignorance,” he explained.

Pushkina called the requirement of the service self-censorship. She noted that there are other LGBT-related references in the book, but Ridero asks to edit the passage about the girl Skochylenko.

The Ridero service asked authors to check books for the presence of information about LGBT+ even before the law prohibiting the distribution of positive information about homosexuality, bisexuality and transgenderism in Russia came into force. He earned money in December 2022. Fines of up to 400,000 rubles for citizens and up to five million rubles for organizations are provided for its violation.

• Sasha Skochylenko is a St. Petersburg artist and musician, the author of comics about life with depression, bipolar disorder, and anxiety. Since April 2022, she has been in a pre-trial detention center for an article about fakes about the Russian army. Skochylenko is accused of replacing price tags in a supermarket with leaflets with information about the actions of Russian soldiers in Ukraine. For this, she faces up to ten years in prison.