The University in St. Petersburg was fined for storing “undesirable” books

The Dzerzhinsky District Court in St. Petersburg fined the European University 70,000 rubles for cooperation with “undesirable organizations”. The reason for the fine was that the library of the university stored books published with the support of foreign funds. After these funds were declared “undesirable in Russia”, the library stopped issuing books to readers, but the court did not take this fact into account.

Eight academic books were seized from the university library during the prosecutor’s inspection in May of this year. They were published in the late 1990s and 2000s with funds from the “Open Society” and “Woodrow Wilson International Center”. At the time of publication, these funds operated legally in Russia. Books were published with the support of the Ministry of Education. The Open Society was included in the list of so-called undesirable organizations in 2015, the Woodrow Wilson Center in 2022.

Among the books that caused the displeasure of the prosecutor’s office are a 2023 monograph on the development of the Internet in Russia, a book of the same year on the interpretation of Lao Tzu’s philosophy, and the materials of a seminar on the museums of St. Petersburg published in 1997.

As the publication “Fontanka” clarifies, the same books are kept in many other libraries of the country, including the Russian National Library. This argument was brought to court by a representative of the university. However, the prosecution responded that “the RNB may also store extremist materials.”

The university reported that after the organizations were declared “undesirable”, books published with their support were placed in a closed fund and no longer issued to readers. Nevertheless, the court found the university guilty of “storage and distribution among students and employees” of unwanted printed materials.

The management of the European University disagrees with the court’s decision and intends to appeal it.