Russian bookstore chain suspends sales of Sasha Skochilenko’s book after warning from Roskomnadzor

One of Russia’s bookstore chains has stopped selling the book by St. Petersburg artist and former political prisoner Sasha Skochilenko, My Prison Trip, after a warning from Roskomnadzor. This was reported by ASTRA, citing a notice from the marketplace received by the founder of the publishing house Freedom Letters, Georgy Urushadze.

The notice says sales were halted because of the agency’s warning about a possible ban on distributing the book in Russia. The edition can be returned to sale only after Roskomnadzor withdraws the warning.

My Prison Trip is based on Skochilenko’s diaries, which she kept after her arrest. In the book, she describes life in detention — from the first days in pretrial detention to her release.

At the beginning of October, Skochilenko wrote that the book’s “guerrilla print run” had been sold on Ozon for two months, albeit partially censored. Now it is impossible to find My Prison Trip on the marketplace.

Skochilenko was detained in spring 2022 after she replaced price tags in a St. Petersburg supermarket with leaflets carrying anti-war messages. In November 2023, a court sentenced her to seven years in a penal colony in a case over spreading “fake news” about the Russian army, and on August 1, 2024, the artist was released as part of an international prisoner exchange.

Now Skochilenko lives in Europe.