One of Russia's leading novelists, Ludmila Ulitskaya, says a book she worked on is being investigated by Russian authorities because of claims that it falls foul of laws against "gay propaganda". The Russian authorities have denied her allegations.
Ulitskaya said in an interview with the BBC that she was helping to publish a series of books for teenagers on cultural anthropology, and one of the books, about family life, raised the suspicions of investigators.
The Family in Our Country and Others, by Vera Timenchik, "caused a stormy reception", she said. "There is a small section that says in some places in the world … there are also homosexual families."
She said Timenchik had been called for questioning by authorities and had told her that investigators wanted to speak to her too.
"I've been abroad for the last month and a half and I will go to see them as soon as I return to Moscow," Ulitskaya told AFP.
The Investigative Committee of Russia, the country's equivalent of the FBI or MI5, denied the author's claims. "Ulitskaya has not been summoned in any capacity. The checks that she spoke about in her interview have not been carried out and are not being carried out," it said in an official statement.
Ulitskaya was one of the signatories of an open letter to Russian authorities published in the Guardian this week. The letter said that the gay propaganda law, as well as anti-defamation and anti-blasphemy legislation, was a threat to writers and artistic freedom in the country.
"Like many Russian citizens, I am deeply concerned about the increasing restrictions on freedom of speech in my country, about the ever-expanding legislation and arbitrary bureaucracy that affect all aspects of Russian life," said Ulitskaya.
She said the Kremlin was attempting to promote "a cultural ideology that, in many respects, mimics the style of Soviet-era propaganda".
The gay propaganda laws have become a key area of controversy as the Sochi Olympics get under way. Russia has insisted that there is no discrimination, but the president, Vladimir Putin, has warned gay people to "leave children alone", and the mayor of Sochi has said there are no gay people in the city.
