Penza, 18 December 2014. PenzaNews. The first hearing of the civil case on recognition of book “Who rules Russia?” as extremist took place in Leninsky district court of Penza on Thursday, December 18. The author of the book — military intelligence retired colonel Vladimir Kvachkov — is currently serving his sentence in one of Mordovian colonies for the attempted coup d'etat.

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The defendant's representatives could not take part in the hearing, being present at another civil case hearing in Moscow on the prohibition of movement “People's militia.”

LLC “Publishing house Algoritm” had no representative as well.

However, video conference was organized to enable author Vladimir Kvachkov to participate in the hearing.

After the judge Tatyana Chernenok explained their rights to the parties, Vladimir Kvachkov was given an opportunity to make a statement or request.

“After the prison administration — colony IK-21 of Mordovia — found out about the civil case on recognition of book “Who rules Russia?” as extremist, they unlawfully and unreasonably seized this book and other materials on the case during a personal search. And so now I ask the court to postpone the meeting until the book is returned since it is the subject of this matter,” Vladimir Kvachkov said.

He explained that without the book, there is no point to participate in this case and it is impossible to talk on this topic with his lawyer and representatives.

The judge indicated that the defendant's representatives filed a written request to postpone the case consideration.

“When the parties expressed their position, the court determined to postpone the consideration of the case until 10.00 on Monday, December 22, and allow the parties to prepare for the trial,” Tatiana Chernenok said.

She added that the issue of providing the defendant with relevant documents, which he can use in the proceedings, is not in her competence — it must be solved by the representatives of Vladimir Kvachkov.

After the court session, Egor Tolchenov, Senior Assistant Attorney of Leninsky district of Penza, commented the position of the applicant in the present case to PenzaNews agency.

“The examination revealed that the book has signs of extremism. In particular, as we pointed out in the claim, there is propaganda of superiority of one nationality over another, and other signs,” he said.

“They write that Jews are lower nation compared to others. Therefore, we believe that it [the book] should be recognized as extremist and included in the federal list of banned literature,” the agency interlocutor explained.

According to the information available to PenzaNews agency, a claim to recognize book “Who rules Russia?” by Vladimir Kvachkov as extremist was sent to the court by Evgeny Zudikhin, prosecutor of Leninsky district of Penza, justice adviser, in October 2014.