Three former employees of closed publishing house Popcorn Books, detained over the sale of queer literature, said Eksmo’s senior managers were involved in “extremism”. TASS reported this on April 21, citing law enforcement agencies.
The corresponding testimony was allegedly given by the former director of the closed publishing house Popcorn Books Dmitry Protopopov, an employee of the publishing house Individuum and Popcorn Books Artem Vakhlyaev and the former sales director of Personal Print LLC Pavel Ivanov.
The agency’s interviewer said that they “made confessions and indicated the involvement of arrested Exmo senior managers in extremism” (before the closure, Popcorn Books was part of the Exmo structure).
TASS added that the former head of Popcorn Books, Dmitry Protopopov, struck a deal with the investigation.
A criminal case for “radicalization” of queer literature was opened in 2025 against employees of publishing houses Popcorn Books and Individuum. Several people were placed under house arrest. Popcorn Books announced it will close in early 2026.
Top managers of Eksmo were taken in for questioning, including the general director of the publishing house Evgeny Kapyev. Media reported that he was arrested in a case of organizing the activities of an “extremist” organization, while Exmo itself said that only the head of the publishing house was being interrogated.