Medinsky helped preserve Eksmo-AST and make sure the holding’s top managers...

Medinsky helped preserve Eksmo-AST and make sure the holding’s top managers avoided charges in the “LGBT extremism” case — BBC Russian Service

Two sources close to the head of the Writers’ Union and Vladimir Putin’s aide on culture, history, and state policy told the outlet this.

According to them, after Popcorn Books employees were detained in May 2025, Vladimir Medinsky “listened to the request” of the head of Eksmo-AST and his “longtime acquaintance” Oleg Novikov (Popcorn Books is part of it) and “took part in resolving the holding’s problems.”

“They handled all the issues through him, because he needs control over the publishing house, he has writers there after all (in the Union — editor’s note), and Novikov is one of his own,” an acquaintance of Medinsky explained to the outlet.

According to the BBC, after the employees were detained, Eksmo-AST CEO Yevgeny Kapiyev left Russia, but returned a few months later because “Oleg Novikov promised him that he had sorted everything out.”

After that, the detainees “began giving detailed testimony against top management.”

“It all kind of moved in stages: first the ‘popcorns’ confessed to all their sins, and later, when it became clear that the trial was approaching, they started turning in Eksmo’s (management — editor’s note). In the end, everyone was turning in everyone,” a BBC source described the course of the investigation.

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