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Investigators say no traces of ethnic antipathies in writer Akunin’s novel

In a comment on the situation around his book, Akunin said it was “kind of funny” that “serious people had to engage in such nonsense”

MOSCOW, October 27 (Itar-Tass) — Russian investigators do not find grounds for instituting a criminal case on charges of extremism against the prolific writer of detective fiction, Boris Akunin, an official spokeswoman for the Moscow Branch of the Main Investigations Committee told Itar-Tass.

Boris Akunin placed a notice in his LifeJournal that a certain Mr. Voyevodin, a convict serving a life term, had filed a petition with the Prosecutor’s Office of Nizhny Novgorod, asking the prosecutors to examine the text of the novel ‘All the World’s a Stage’ for the presence of extremist utterances in it.

“Upon the results of a study of the text, no extremist utterances were found there and a decision was taken to deny the instituting of a criminal case against Akunin,” said Viktoria Tsyplenkova, the Investigations Committee spokeswoman.

“The petition was filed October 14, 2011, and an inquiry was ordered,” she said. “According to the internal instructions of Russia’s Investigations Committee, the investigators are expected to consider any reports on crimes and to take legal decisions on them.”

The petitioner perceived an extremist underpinning in the utterances made in Akunin’s novel by a personage who says the Russians are unable to distinguish the different types of Japanese noodles.

In a comment on the situation around his book, Akunin said it was “kind of funny” that “serious people had to engage in such nonsense” at a time when Russia really has problems with extremism.

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