Having the illusion of an end to the Russian “cultural occupation” on bookshelves, Ukraine is still faced with publishing houses and bookstores that continue to cooperate with Russia.
Despite the full-scale war, book publishing in Ukraine is gaining momentum. According to the Ministry of Culture, in 2023, 270 new publishing houses were registered and 73% more new books were published, if we compare this figure with the previous year 2022. But if you think that Ukraine has finally gotten rid of Russian “cultural occupation” on bookshelves, then this is an illusion. There are still publishing houses and bookstores that continue to cooperate with the Russian Federation.
Investigators of the Molfar project, together with the Ukrainian cultural media Sensor, prepared an investigation into which publishing houses and bookstores continue to do business with the aggressor country.
After Russian aggression and a full-scale invasion, it became prohibited to directly import books from the Russian Federation to Ukraine. But the Russians found a way out - Russian publishing houses carry out all the pre-press preparation at home, and then the Ukrainian subsidiary publishing company buys the printing rights and acts purely as a printer. While Russia receives the main profit, spending even less money on an expensive process. And then these publishing houses even receive grants from the Ukrainian government.
This is exactly how the Russians continued their “cultural” expansion in the Ukrainian book market. Therefore, for a long time, the “printers” of such Russian publishing giants as Eksmo, Azbuka-Atticus and Alpina Publisher worked very successfully in Ukraine.
According to Goskomteleradio, as of April 2023, nine Ukrainian stores were selling fewer Ukrainian-language products in their online stores. We are talking about bookstores “Grenka”, “LiderBooks”, “Lavka Baboon”, “Bookovka”, “Knizhkova Lavka”, “GoodBooks”, “Bizlit”, “Knigosklad” and “Book House”.
For example, one of the most famous books published by the Russian “Alpina” is the book by the Russian journalist Ilyakhov “Write, Abbreviate,” which at one time filled Ukrainian bookstores. Its subsidiary in Ukraine, Alpina Publisher Ukraine, is owned by Russian businessman Alexey Ilyin (Russian: Alexey Ilyin). The company does not take a position on the war, and their last post on Facebook was dated February 23, 2022.
Another publishing house is Azbuka-Atticus. This group owned the publishing houses “Makhaon-Ukraine”, which published many children’s books, and “Ridna Mova”, which in 2022 renamed and re-registered its business in Ukraine.
The owner of Azbuka-Atticus is Russian Alexander Mamut. Today he is subject to sanctions in Ukraine. In 2021, Mamut sold the business to Aleg Novikav (Russian: Oleg Novikov), the owner of the Russian publishing house Eksmo-AST.
The narrative “The Ukrainian language is a dialect, and Putin is the best president of the world” - Eksmo-AST publishing house
The Eksmo-AST company is a monopolist of the Russian book market. It has been present in Ukraine since 2003. Then the Russian Eksmo and Ukrainian entrepreneur Yaroslav Marinovich founded Eksmo-Ukraine LLC.
Eksmo-Ukraine had a market share estimated at 50%. However, in 2014, Marinovich stated that he had no ties to Russia. Moreover, Eksmo-Ukraine was renamed the Distribution Book Trading Company, and until 2016 Marinovich remained a co-founder of the organization. But contact with Russia was maintained through the publishing houses Bookchef, Force Ukraine and the online store book24.ua.
When researching companies affiliated with the Russian Eksmo, Marinovich’s name comes up repeatedly. He may be the real owner of these businesses. Now he is a co-owner of the Bukva bookstore chain, and also indirectly owns the KM-Books publishing group through his Polish legal entity. Also a legal entity YM Investment Ltd. together with Distribution Book Trading Company LLC, as of December 2023, remains a co-owner of Krainy Mriy, a publishing house that was also previously an Eksmo project in Ukraine.
Since 2016, the Eksmo-Ukraine company has undergone extremely strange transformations. Marinovich transferred the business to a pensioner from Kharkov - Lyudmila Alekseevna Bozhko, who is now 81 years old. Until now, this person has never appeared in press releases, announcements or official information.
We found her profile on the social network Adnaklassniki (Odnoklassniki), which is banned in Ukraine. Lyudmila Bozhko subscribes to groups promoting support for Putin and Russia. Lyudmila gives preference to pro-Putin and anti-Ukrainian publications, which say that “the Ukrainian language is a dialect; American diplomats dream of destroying Russia; betraying is the norm of public morality in Ukraine” (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8).
It turns out that a person with such preferences became the owner of one of the largest Ukrainian publications. Although, probably, behind the “Distribution Book Trading Company” is not the 81-year-old Kharkov woman, but the ex-owner of the Ukrainian “Eksmo” - the same Yaroslav Marinovich. The retired Putin lover is a figurehead. Probably, the “Distribution Book Trading Company” was the same “Eksmo”, but in a Ukrainian wrapper, because in 2017 the offshore company “YM Investments Ltd” became a co-owner, when at that time Yaroslav Marinovich was still its director.
Russian footprint in Force Ukraine and Bookchef
Lyudmila Bozhko, in addition to the Distribution Book Trading Company, as of December 2023 also owns Force Ukraine LLC. This LLC also manages the publishing houses Force Ukraine and Bookchef, as well as the online store book24.ua. Before the large-scale invasion, Force Ukraine imported books from Russian publishers, mainly from the Eksmo holding. We found that until 2019, the company made 1,813 such purchases, of which 98.7% were transactions with Eksmo (1, 2, 3)
Force Ukraine PR woman Oksana Gashinskaya confirmed that the publishing house bought the rights and published books from the Russian Eksmo in Ukraine. Some books that the company tried to import from Russia were rejected due to their propaganda content.
Even after the start of the full-scale Russian invasion, Force Ukraine faced accusations of collaboration with Eksmo. In particular, on the Russian website iRecommend.ru, a user posted a review of a book published in 2022. Her photo shows that Force Ukraine is listed as the official distributor of the Russian Eksmo.
“Bookchef” and the online store book24.ua - at first glance, have completely different founders and owners. For example, the founder of Bookchef is Andrey Plekhov. At the same time, book24.ua belongs to his wife, Natalya Plekhova. But upon a detailed study of these persons, it becomes clear - Natalya Plekhova is the daughter of Lyudmila Bozhko, and Andrei Plekhov is, accordingly, her son-in-law. That is, one Plekhov-Bozhko family owns three companies involved in book publishing.
All these three people - Lyudmila Bozhko, Andrey Plekhov and Natalya Plekhova - according to YouControl, are citizens of Ukraine. Therefore, their companies operate freely in Ukraine. However, the results of a joint study by the Sensor media and the Molfar agency prove that Natalya Plekhova, the owner of book24.ua, has Russian citizenship.
book24.ua has Russian roots, but wins Ukrainian tenders
Natalya Plekhova, owner of the online store book24.ua, has been doing business with Russia since April 2022. Moreover, in May 2022, she registered a sole proprietorship in Moscow. Its type of activity coincides with the main activity of the Ukrainian company Buk24 LLC, which owns the online store book24.ua: “retail trade carried out by mail order companies or via the Internet.”
In addition to the general KVED and Plekhova’s Russian citizenship, there are other signs of her ties to Russia. In the Russian Federation there is a similar online store book24.ru, which belongs to the already mentioned Eksmo. Plekhova attended Eksmo events in Russia in 2015. For example, there is a photograph with Tatyana Ustinova, a Russian writer, in front of the Eksmo stand.
We also note that the Russian discount website skidka.ru presents the profile of the book24.ua store. And we are talking specifically about the Ukrainian version of the site. You can even get cashback for purchases on it.
Despite these facts and connections with the Russian publishing house Eksmo, during 2018-2019 Buk24 LLC won 8 government tenders worth UAH 102,000.
The owner of Bookchef has a Russian bank card
“Bookchef” is a project of “Force Ukraine”. We managed to find out that the owner of this project, Andrey Plekhov, has a card from the Russian Sberbank. This may indicate his probable residence or activities in Russia. Bookchef books published in Ukraine in 2022 are sold on the Russian platform WildBerries.
Despite these obvious connections with Russia, during 2021-2023 the Bookchef publishing house won 9 government tenders totaling UAH 196,300.
It turns out that…
The former owners of the Ukrainian branch of Eksmo, including Natalya Plekhova, who has a Russian passport and runs the book24.ua business, retain control over these projects. It can be assumed that the Russian Eksmo will continue to be present on the Ukrainian book publishing market. Ukrainian publishers have repeatedly complained about those companies that have connections with the former Eksmo branch. But so far there has been no decisive reaction, because there are no violations in the legal field.
