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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
World
Luke Harding and Kate Connolly in Berlin

Free speech groups criticise German ban on Russian journalists’ book

Andrei Soldatov and Irina Boroga
Andrei Soldatov and Irina Borogan. ‘The objective is to stop the flow of information,’ Soldatov said of the legal action. Photograph: supplied

A Russian businessman has successfully taken legal action to ban a book in Germany about the Kremlin and its spy agencies, in a case that freedom of speech groups have described as an alarming attack on public interest reporting.

Two London-based Russian journalists, Andrei Soldatov and Irina Borogan, say they interviewed the businessman, Alexey Kozlov, for their 2019 book The Compatriots because of his family’s historical connections to Soviet intelligence. He has now won a court injunction against the book’s publisher.

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