The Vladimir book festival “Kitovras” faced controversy as organizers decided to cancel the appearances of writers Irina Kotova and Asya Demishkevich following complaints from war supporters. The publication “Dovod” brought attention to this issue, although the cancellation was not officially announced by the organizers.
Alexander Bobrov, a member of the Union of Writers of Russia, criticized Kotova, labeling her as a “pervert and Russophobe.” Kotova is known for her poem “White-Blue-Red Pyramid” that sheds light on the atrocities committed by the Russian military. Renowned writer and propagandist Alexander Pelevin later confirmed the cancellation of Kotova’s performance due to her controversial stance.
In a similar vein, the scheduled performance of writer Asya Demishkevich on August 17 was also called off. At the eleventh hour, it was replaced by a session with Mikhail Faustov, the director of the “Reading Russia” project. When questioned about Demishkevich’s absence, festival administrators on VKontakte simply redirected to the updated program on the festival’s website. The decision to cancel Demishkevich’s appearance was influenced by the Z-resource “Kargach,” expressing outrage over her publications in the anti-war media outlet ROAR and the war-related themes in her fantasy novel “Once a boy, twice a boy.”
Original source: theins.ru