Quotes of the Week

Week-ending 16 January 2026

“Every day, we think of those we worked with for many years and are deploy concerned for them.”

– Popcorn Books, 13 January 2025 in a statement confirming its closure in which it thanked readers for their support ‘even when we barely had the strength to go on’ and expressed concern for employees arrested in May 2025 on suspicion of violating Russia’s anti-LGBTQ+ ‘propaganda’ and ‘extremism’ laws.

– source: ‘Russia’s Leading Publisher Shutters Queer-Interest YA Imprint Months After ‘Extremism’ Arrests, The Moscow Times, 13 January 2026

Background from The Moscow Times: ‘Russia’s largest book publisher Eksmo has shut down its embattled young-adult literature subsidiary Popcorn Books, which became a primary target of the Kremlin’s crackdown on so-called “LGBT extremism.” Eksmo told the Vedomosti business newspaper Tuesday that the brand Popcorn Books has become associated “with a broader context than the publication of books.” The statement appears to refer to the May 2025 raids and arrests of several Eksmo employees on suspicion of violating Russia’s anti-LGBTQ+ “propaganda” and “extremism” laws. Three top managers of Popcorn Books and another Eksmo imprint Individuum remain under house arrest as part of the investigation. The charges of organizing the activities of an “extremist organization” carry a potential sentence of up to 10 years in prison. Russia’s Supreme Court declared the so-called “international LGBT movement” an extremist organization in late 2023, effectively criminalizing any public displays of LGBTQ+ lifestyles and advocacy. “This prevents the publisher from further development,” Eksmo told Vedomosti without mentioning the arrests.’