Ukraine bans books promoting Russia
It also forbids literature that calls for state coups or promotes wars and racial hatred
KIEV (AFP) - Ukraine Friday banned Russian books glorifying the Kremlin and its leaders or espousing what it views as "totalitarian views" in a move certain to further sour relations between the two foes.
The law adopted by President Petro Poroshenko "prohibits the promotion of aggressor states ... or (books) that create a positive image of this aggressor state", referring to Russia.
It also forbids literature that calls for state coups or promotes wars and racial hatred.
The legislation says a group of experts will decide which Russian books are acceptable or not.
Kiev accuses Russia of launching a 31-month war in its separatist east that has claimed nearly 10,000 lives in retaliation for Kiev s February 2014 ouster of a Moscow-backed leader.
Russia denies this but Ukraine refuses to believe it and has since signed a landmark agreement with the European Union and hopes to one day join the NATO military bloc.
Poroshenko s decision comes slightly more than a year after Ukraine s tax and customs service banned 38 works by Russian media celebrities accused of holding anti-Ukrainian views.
Kiev accused the authors of "promoting fascism" and "humiliating and insulating a nation and its people".
Friday s measure appears to go further by covering all Russian literature deemed to be anti-Ukrainian in content.
There was no immediate response to the decision from Moscow.
Ukraine ranked 107th out of 180 countries on the Reports Without Borders censorship watchdog s 2016 World Press Freedom index.
