St. Petersburg, RUSSIA — Hundreds of people were gathered on Palace Square to see Zakhar Prilepin, one of Russia’s best-known nationalist writers, present his latest novel at the St. Petersburg International Book Fair.
But Prilepin, a vocal supporter of the war who fought alongside pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine beginning in 2014, was running half an hour late.
As the crowd waited, police units combed the area around the pavilion while a police dog checked the building for explosives.
Prilepin survived an assassination attempt in May 2023 when a bomb exploded under his car in central Russia. His public appearances have been accompanied by heightened security measures ever since.
Finally, audience members were admitted individually and searched before entering the venue.
