Case against Moscow’s Library of Ukrainian Literature may be closed

(Interfax – October 30, 2015)

A criminal investigation launched against the director of the Moscow-based Library of Ukrainian Literature, Natalya Sharina, who is a suspect in a case opened into the spreading of extremist literature, may be closed, a source in law enforcement agencies told Interfax.

“The case against Sharina may be closed on the basis of the Prosecutor’s Office’s decision on its having been opened groundlessly,” he said.

It will be difficult to charge Sharina with spreading extremist literature, the source said.

“Library stocks can store books of different content. The question here is how they can be accessed. It will be quite difficult to collect evidence proving that Sharina spread banned books,” he added.

Searches were conducted at the Library of Ukrainian Literature on October 28. Library director Natalya Sharina was detained shortly afterwards.

Russian Investigative Committee spokesman Vladimir Markin told Interfax on October 29 that the committee would ask a court to arrest Sharina.

A criminal case has been opened against Sharina on suspicion of “fomenting interethnic hatred and enmity, as well as humiliating human dignity,” he said.

The case was opened after investigators found out that the library offered its customers a book by Dmytro Korchynsky, which a Russian court had earlier qualified as extremist and banned of the use and circulation.