Prosecutor Yashkova asked the Zamoskvoretsky District Court in Moscow to sentence Dmitry Protopopov, head of the editorial office at publishers Popcorn Books and Individuum, to four years in prison, suspended. A Mediazona correspondent reported from the courtroom. The defense asked for the proceedings to be closed, but the court refused.
In addition to the sentence, the state prosecution demanded that Protopopov be banned from publishing activity for four years. The prosecutor's office also wants to confiscate more than 8.7 million rubles from him, which he received as a salary at Eksmo. Investigators consider this money to be criminal income.
Protopopov pleaded guilty, signed a pretrial agreement and testified about the role of other participants, including employees of Eksmo. The case is being heard under a special procedure. Former Popcorn Books sales director Pavel Ivanov and warehouse manager Artyom Vakhlyaev were detained in May last year. They were released under a ban on certain actions a year later.
According to the investigation, in the summer of 2022, the novel about gay teenagers "Summer in a Pioneer Tie," published by Popcorn Books, caused a public outcry. In September, publishing house employees called Eksmo about removing the novel from sale, as well as the books "What the Swallow Is Silent About," "Window onto the Courtyard," "The King's Entourage," "Call Me by Your Name" and "Darius the Great Deserves Better."
No later than December 2023, after the ban on the "LGBT movement," the defendants, according to the investigation, formed the intent to sell the remaining books from the warehouse with a total value of tens of millions of rubles. Protopopov sent employees a letter titled "Shipment of books from the red list." The prosecution claims that to circumvent the ban, he devised two lists: a "red" one with books where "LGBT propaganda" is a central part of the plot (they were planned to be sold only abroad), and a "yellow" one with less explicit works that were to be distributed in Russia.
The indictment states that in January 2024, Ivanov received an order for 50 books from the "red" list, and one of the buyers was a minor. From January to March, another test purchase took place: a minor ordered 40 books, listed them on Avito, where they were bought by law enforcement officers. The case also mentions a shipment of books sent by bus to Azerbaijan.
At one of the confrontations, Protopopov stated that selling LGBT literature was impossible without the knowledge of Eksmo general director Yevgeny Kapyev, and confirmed this with correspondence. According to Protopopov, Kapyev told subordinates that he "hired lobbyists" to fight the LGBT ban, but without success. When asked why the Popcorn Books warehouse was closed, Protopopov replied that it was done for conspiratorial reasons. Protopopov himself, according to his own words, brought at least 700,000 rubles in cash to the publishing house.