Natalya Yeletskaya's novel Salikhat has disappeared from the websites of publisher AST, the Chitai-Gorod bookstore chain and several book services, according to an investigation by Verstka. Its journalists also could not find the book in the catalogues of LitRes, Yandex Books, Stroki or LiveLib. Individual copies remained available from private sellers.
In April, Miyasat Muslimova, head of the Dagestan branch of the Union of Russian Writers, filed complaints about the novel with the Investigative Committee and the Prosecutor General's Office. She accused the author of stirring hostility towards people from Dagestan. A bookseller told Verstka that it had received a demand to stop selling the work, citing Russian legislation.
Published in 2021, the novel follows a 16-year-old girl from a Dagestani village whose father forces her into marriage against her will. Its portrayal of violence and the lack of rights afforded to women prompted public objections to the book.
No nationwide ban on the novel or court order requiring its removal from sale has been established. The complaints about the book do not, by themselves, show that every retailer removed it for the same reason.