Eksmo CEO Yevgeny Kapyev is being checked for involvement in the distribution...

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Searches are being carried out at the management of the Eksmo publishing house in a case over “the distribution of LGBT literature among minors” — the company's CEO Yevgeny Kapyev has been detained, REN reports. According to the TV channel, the publishing group is suspected of organizing a “scheme…

Eksmo CEO Yevgeny Kapyev is being checked for involvement in the distribution of the books “Summer in a Pioneer Tie” and “What the Swallow Is Silent About.” RBC reports this, citing sources in law enforcement agencies.

Both books were published by Individuum and Popcorn Books, which are part of the Eksmo-AST structure. Their authors, Elena Malisova\ and Katerina Silvanova (real name Ekaterina Dudko\), have been entered in Russia’s register of “foreign agents.”

The BBC Russian Service, citing sources, writes that as part of the investigation into the Popcorn Books and Individuum case, opened in May 2025 under the article on organizing the activities of an extremist organization because of the distribution of queer literature, it emerged that money from the sale of books banned in Russia was going into Eksmo’s cash desk and that “management was aware of this.”

Oleg Novikov, president and controlling shareholder of the Eksmo-AST publishing group, confirmed to Radio RBC that Kapyev and several other employees had been taken to the Investigative Committee for questioning as part of investigative actions in a criminal extremism case (the distribution of books by the Popcorn Books publishing house) opened in May 2025. Also, according to REN TV, Eksmo editor-in-chief Alexandra Shipetina has been detained.

Earlier, criminal cases under extremism articles were opened against Yuri Shefler, the owner of the Moskovskaya and Stolichnaya vodka brands (he and his companies were recognized as an “extremist association”); against the owners of the Lanta mobile operator (also recognized as an “extremist association”); and against Denis and Nikolai Shtengelov, the owners of the food holding KDV Group, which makes products under the Kirieshki, Yashkino, Baltimore and many other brands (also recognized as an extremist association). In all cases, the assets were nationalized