Moscow's library of Ukrainian literature is slated to be shut down, a lawyer for its director said Monday.
Lawyer Ivan Pavlov cited a “reliable source in the Moscow city government” as saying the library is to be closed, according to a post on his Facebook page Monday. Russian authorities had accused library director Natalya Sharina of “extremism” and had agents search the homes of library employees.
The library building will house a “multi-media center of eastern Slavic people,” the lawyer said.
“At least [employees] won't go to a pretrial detention center right away,” he said.
The Russian Investigative Committee has claimed that the library director broke the law by distributing books by nationalist-leaning Ukrainian politician Dmitro Korchinsky among library visitors in 2011-15. Some of Korchinsky's books have been declared extremist in Russia and banned.
Sharina's case is currently being treated as a case of particular importance by investigators, the RIA Novosti news agency reported earlier this month.
