On 14 July 2025, bestselling author Boris Akunin, one of the most translated Russian authors in Italy, was sentenced in absentia by a Moscow court to 14 years in a maximum-security penal colony. He was found guilty of aiding terrorist activity, justifying terrorism, and failing to comply with the obligations of a "foreign agent".

At the same time, writer and journalist Dmitrij Bykov was added to the wanted list after criminal proceedings were initiated against him in absentia in April for spreading "fake news" about the Russian army and for violating the requirements imposed on individuals registered as "foreign agents".

The cases of Akunin and Bykov are merely the latest in a series of episodes of censorship and persecution that, since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, have targeted numerous figures from the cultural world on both sides of the new iron curtain.

A trial without a defendant

Boris Akunin – born Grigorij Chkhartishvili, a name that reveals his Georgian origins – is one of the most outspoken critics of Russia's military intervention in Ukraine.

In February 2024, he wrote on Telegram: "I am now in favour of revolution, because there is no other way to rid ourselves of the dictatorship. There are no elections and there will be none; the regime kills its opponents or leaves them to rot in prison."

Yes, revolution is an explosion. But history contains such rubble that it cannot be cleared away except by an explosion.

Boris Akunin

This is one of the incriminating pieces of content. But it is not the only one. What also drew the attention of the Russian authorities was a phone conversation that Akunin had in late 2023 with two Russian comedians, Vovan and Lexus – the same duo who, around the same time, had also set a telephone trap for Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, posing as an African politician and prompting her to discuss the need for an "exit route" from the war in Ukraine. On that occasion, Vovan and Lexus presented themselves to Akunin as Aleksandr Tkatchenko (Ukraine's Minister of Culture until 2023) and, on another occasion, as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. During the conversation, in addition to expressing his support for Kyiv, Akunin stated that he had organised a fundraising campaign in support of Ukraine.

NEXTA ✓ @nexta_tv

𝕏

Russian Justice Ministry has recognized writer Boris Akunin as a "foreign agent"

♥ 169💬 21 12 gen 2024 · Apri su X →

The prosecution had initially sought 18 years in prison for Akunin, later reduced to 14, while the court-appointed defence lawyer called for acquittal. As reported by Mediazona, in the courtroom, before the defendant's empty chair, only one prosecution witness appeared: a pensioner who had learned of Akunin's statements through the internet and the television programme of propagandist Vladimir Solov'ëv.

"I do not recognise their court. I have not authorised any lawyer to represent me in their so-called trial and I will not participate in this farce in any way," Akunin commented upon hearing the news of his 14-year sentence.

Following the phone conversation with the Russian comedians Vovan and Lexus, publisher Ast discontinued the publication of Akunin's books. Similarly, several Russian bookshops and libraries removed from their shelves the titles of other well-known writers who refused to toe the Kremlin line, including Ljudmila Ulitskaja, Dmitrij Glukhovskij, Vladimir Sorokin and others. Akunin's name was also removed from the posters of several theatre productions.

Bykov on the wanted list

The same fate has befallen Dmitrij Bykov, a writer, journalist, thinker and activist who is very well known in Russia and who keeps alive – even from abroad – the popular character of Russian poetry.

After being added to the "foreign agents" register and being fined on multiple occasions, Bykov saw the sale of his books blocked. His writings, along with those of other authors, were removed from libraries or moved to storage.

Now Russia's Ministry of Internal Affairs has placed him on the wanted list. It is not clear under which article of the Criminal Code.

The Russian Investigative Committee is currently conducting two criminal proceedings against him:

• spreading false information about the Russian Armed Forces,
• violating the obligations imposed on "foreign agents".

Bykov left Russia several years ago to move to the United States. Boris Akunin, meanwhile, currently lives in France.

Their stories are just one fragment of the mosaic of censorship that has once again begun to cripple, after many years, the country's cultural and literary output.

The rise of censorship in Russia

"Literature in Russia enjoyed an almost total absence of censorship for a surprisingly long period – explained Galina Jusefovich, literary critic –. In 1986, Michail Gorbaciov signed a decree abolishing the requirement to submit thematic editorial programmes to the Glavlit, the main censorship body of the Soviet era, for prior approval. From that moment on, publishing houses were free to publish whatever they wished." The Glavlit was definitively closed in 1991, and from that point Russian literary output experienced a period of growing freedom, characterised at the same time by total anarchy in matters of copyright and by the circulation of potentially dangerous texts, such as practical manuals on how to make explosives and drugs.

It was not until 2007 that the Ministry of Justice created a list of extremist materials that also included books. A filter that nevertheless did not prevent Russian literary output from experiencing an era of extraordinary permissiveness.

This is why the publishing sector found itself tragically unprepared for the wave of repression that swept through Russia after 24 February 2022. Following the invasion of Ukraine and the criticism voiced by many authors, censorship grew gradually and intensified with the passage of the law against lgbtq+ propaganda, which in spring 2024 even led to the sensational removal of certain verses by Pier Paolo Pasolini translated into Russian. The worlds of cinema, theatre and the press were naturally not left unscathed by this new repressive wave.

"You are right, many outlets have closed, journalists have left. But do not forget the situation we are in. We are in a period of wartime censorship, something unprecedented for our country" – responded Kremlin spokesman Dmitrij Peskov to the magazine Expert.

The war is also fought in the information space. And it would be wrong to turn a blind eye to media that deliberately devote themselves to discrediting Russia. That is why I believe this regime is justified today.

Dmitrij Peskov

Wartime censorship, however, knows no borders. And it has made its presence felt, once again, in our country too.

Wartime censorship in Italy

The cancellation of a course on Fjodor Dostoevskij at Milan's Bicocca university in March 2022 was only the beginning. Then came the turn of opera singers, sportspeople, artists and Russian dancers kept off stage because they were supporters of Putin's policies, or simply because they were Russian. Even the sudden cancellation last year of the presentation of the book "C'era una volta l'Urss, storia di un amore" (Sandro Teti Editore) by Slavicist Laura Salmon, one of the most renowned translators of Russian literature into Italian, sparked a storm of controversy.

The debate over whether or not to cancel cultural events linked to Russia has now shifted to Campania, where controversy has erupted over a concert by Russian conductor Valerij Gergiev, scheduled for 27 July 2025 in Caserta. Opposing Gergiev, accused of being a friend and supporter of Putin, is Julia Navalnaja, widow of dissident Aleksej Navalnyj, who has gathered 16,000 signatures calling for the concert to be stopped.

https://www.instagram.com/p/DLz0KEUNmYO/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

Naples mayor Gaetano Manfredi suggested evaluating "the boundary between art and propaganda", while Campania governor Vincenzo De Luca responded to the controversy as follows: "Culture and art are among those areas where dialogue between people can grow and values of human solidarity can develop. We have always worked to promote and foster encounters between individuals of different sensibilities. We have encouraged the presence of Jews and Palestinians, of Russians and Ukrainians, trying not to conflate the political sphere with the cultural one".

Russian writer Dmitrij Bykov, wanted in his homeland, commented on the invitation to Valerij Gergiev to perform in Caserta as follows. "In my view, all other ways of waking Europe up have by now been exhausted. Therefore, to make it open its eyes, I would send to this festival the opera Semyon Kotko by Sergej Prokof'ev (an opera that tells the story of Ukrainian soldier Semyon Kotko returning to his home village after the First World War; it was recently staged at the Bolshoj Theatre in Moscow, directed by Sergej Novikov, and sparked widespread controversy due to its propagandistic imagery in support of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, ed.). I would insist that Gergiev participate in Caserta not with works by Wagner or some Italian title, but with precisely that staging by Sergej Novikov, and with that specific projection on the curtain. Because all the talk about art being outside of politics, above politics, this opera disproves it in the most evident way".

In the end, after days of intense controversy, the management of the Reggia di Caserta ordered the cancellation of the symphonic concert conducted by Russian maestro Valerij Gergiev. Possible protest demonstrations by Ukrainian associations had been anticipated.