You're reading: Foreign Ministry calls for restraint in row over Moscow library

Ukraine's Foreign Ministry on Jan. 16 expressed concern about the situation involving the Library of Ukrainian Literature in Moscow, which has been searched several times in by Moscow police looking for subversive and xenophobic books.

"The Foreign Ministry believes that both sides, including [Russian] law-enforcement agencies, will modify their behavior taking into account that Ukrainian-Russian ties impact millions of people on both sides of the border, not just experts and diplomats," Oleh Voloshin, Director of Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry’s Information Policy Department told reporters on Jan. 16.

Moscow police in late December 2010 partially suspended the operations of the library, seizing about 50 books suspected of containing xenophobic materials. Law-enforcement agencies returned to the library on Jan. 14 and confiscated the library’s computers.