KIEV: Ukraine escalated its cultural war with Moscow on Thursday by proposing a ban on Russian books that promote the ouster of Kiev’s pro-Western leadership and recognise the Kremlin’s annexation of Crimea.
The bill submitted to parliament follows similar legislation that prevents channels from airing Russian shows and films deemed to cast a negative light on the former Soviet republic’s history and February 2014 pro-EU revolt.
Ukraine has further barred the entry of a raft of international stars and politicians who have cozied up to Russian President Vladimir Putin or backed the Kremlin’s March 2014 seisure of its strategic Black Sea Peninsula of Crimea.
The proposed legislation concerns books that were either “published or shipped from the territory of the aggressor nation or the temporarily occupied Crimea, and which are forbidden from being distributed in Ukraine.”
The new ban would cover literature “that calls for the overthrow of power” in Ukraine.
It would also banish books that “create a positive image of workers of the aggressor nation” and “propagate communist and nationalist-socialist totalitarian regimes”.
Ukraine and its Western allies view Russia as an “aggressor” after it snatched Crimea and allegedly sent active soldiers and weapons to aid eastern insurgents fighting a 28-month revolt that has claimed nearly 9,600 lives.
