The Mediazona newspaper reported that the Prosecutor General’s Office requested that the head of the sales department at Exmo Publishing House, Artem Vakhlyaev, be sentenced to four years in prison with a suspended sentence in the case of selling queer literature.
Vakhliev was charged with participation in the activities of an extremist organization, as well as involvement of other persons in the activities of this organization (parts 1.1 and 2 of Article 282.2 of the Criminal Code).
An Eksmo employee pleaded guilty and testified against “accomplices in the scheme” to sell queer literature. His case is being considered under a special procedure in the Zamoskvoretsky Court in Moscow. At the beginning of the session, the defense requested that the trial be moved behind closed doors, but the court refused.
Vakhlyaev, former sales director of Popcorn Books Pavel Ivanov, and one of the leaders of Popcorn Books and Individuum Dmitry Protopopov were arrested in May last year. They spent about a year under house arrest, after which they were released from custody under a ban on certain activities.
According to the prosecution, in December 2023, shortly after the non-existent “gay movement” was banned in Russia, the defendants in the case decided to sell the remains of the “banned” books. The activities of the “organized group” within Exmo, according to the claim, were aimed at involving children in the “LGBTQ movement.” The case refers to the sale of books to underage girls, and it was found that one of them participated in the experimental purchase
According to the investigation, Vakhliev was responsible for warehouse logistics, order formation and other nuances of book sales.
He himself did not provide detailed testimony in court. The announced interrogations say that the “red” (books already banned in the Russian Federation) and “yellow” (books that may contain questions) lists were formed by Popcorn Books editor-in-chief Satenik Anastasyan in mid-2023.
According to Vakhlyaev, it was the top director of Eksmo-AST and the head of the individual printing press, Alexandra Shepetina, who proposed to reissue some books and sell them “secretly.” The general director of Eksmo-AST, Yevgeny Kabaev, the director of distribution, Anatoly Norovyatkin, and the head of RDC-Almaty, Ivan Becharatyan, were also named as involved in the book sale.
The former sales director of the publishing house Popcorn Books, Pavel Ivanov, another person involved in the case, was given a four-year suspended prison sentence. He also made a deal with the investigation and testified against other defendants. Among other things, Ivanov stated at the trial that “all my life I have been suffering from this [ЛГБТ]starting in Soviet times, when deviants were arrested as part of the Komsomol detachment.
The case in which Ivanov and Vakhliev were sentenced became known in the media as the “Book Publishers Case.” In the spring of 2026, several Eksmo executives were arrested as part of this case, including the general director of the publishing house, Yevgeny Kabaev. After investigation, they were released. Russian media sources reported that Protopopov, Vakhliyev and Ivanov provided evidence against Exmo’s top managers.