Putin’s State Labeled Me a Foreign Agent Over My New Book

Elvira Bary

The Russian state has officially declared me a “foreign agent” — just two weeks after I published the Russian-language version of my novel The Snow Queen’s Spring on my website.  For a year and a half, I ran an English-language political YouTube channel with millions of views, and Moscow barely noticed. But the moment I wrote a novel in Russian about how the mafia behind the Russian state really works, the regime suddenly became interested.  So let’s talk about what this label really means, why it happened now, and why I consider it my book’s first official literary prize.  👉 The Snow Queen&#039;s Spring book description: https://elvirabary.com/elvira-barys-newsletter/  JOIN ME ON THE JOURNEY 👉https://www.facebook.com/baryelvira/ 👉https://www.instagram.com/elvira.bary/  MY HISTORICAL FICTION BOOK SERIES ➡️ Russian Treasures (a historical novel about the Bolshevik Revolution and Russian Civil War) https://amzn.to/43PutaM ➡️ The White Ghosts&#039; Empire (a historical novel about the Russian refugees who destroyed the myth of white supremacy in China in the 1920s) https://amzn.to/4owy45Z ➡️ The Prince of the Soviets (a historical novel about a foreign journalist who unexpectedly becomes par

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00:00Ta-da! The Russian state has officially declared me a foreign agent.

00:05For English speakers, in modern Russia, that label doesn't mean James Bond.

00:10It means the government has marked you as politically toxic, dangerous, disloyal,

00:15and in need of public stigmatizing. Usually because you said something true

00:21about Putin's regime destroying Russia.

00:24This happened exactly two weeks after I published the Russian-language version of my novel,

00:30The Snow Queen's Spring, on my website.

00:32Before that, I had spent a year and a half running a political YouTube channel in English

00:38with millions of views, and nobody in Moscow cared in the slightest.

00:44Apparently that was fine, but the moment I wrote a novel about how the mafia running

00:49the Russian state actually works and posted it in Russian for Russian readers,

00:54The Mafia got nervous. Which, I must say, is a wonderful review.

01:00The foreign agents list includes some of Russia's finest intellectuals.

01:06So frankly, I had started to feel a little left out.

01:09But let us treat this as my novel's first literary prize.

01:15The funniest part is that these idiots do not even understand that they have handed me a superb marketing tool.

01:23I can now say with full official confirmation that I am dangerous and fabulous.

01:32I write books that get noticed within two weeks of being posted on a personal website.

01:40Not bad at all.

01:41This is also why they are losing the war in Ukraine.

01:44The people making decisions are fools.

01:47Or, and this is my favorite theory, perhaps they are our secret allies,

01:53heroically helping to spread the good word from inside the system.

01:58If so, I tip my hat to the invisible fighters of that front.

02:04I like to see you next month.

02:04That's six months ago!

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