Writers consider legal action against Moscow publishing house after discovering series about president circulated in their names. The Moscow Times reports

A Russian publishing house has printed a series of books about Vladimir Putin under the names of prominent western analysts and journalists – without the knowledge or permission of the so-called authors.

The Guardian’s Luke Harding, The Economist’s Edward Lucas and US-based Russia expert Donald Jensen say that they did not know anything about Russian-language books attributed to them and produced by the Moscow publishers Algoritm in a series called Project Putin.

Harding says that his publisher, Guardian Books, will decide whether to take legal action against Algoritm once it has investigated. “The first I heard about it was a couple of weeks ago when a Russian friend said he’d spotted ‘my book’ in a Moscow bookstore,” said the former Moscow correspondent, adding: “Normally publishers buy rights, translate, then put out an edition.”

Nobody But Putin, the book under Harding’s name, is advertised on Algoritm’s website as “developing the idea” of his previous (and officially published) work Mafia State.

Lucas, the author of several volumes about Russia, said he had “absolutely no idea” about a book in his name, How the West Lost to Putin, which was published last year by Algoritm. “I have not given permission of any kind. It is clearly a breach of copyright,” he said.

Washington-based think-tank fellow Jensen said he was not aware of a volume called Putin and the USA, printed earlier this year under his name and available to buy in Moscow shops. “I have not written such a book in any language. It looks to be a compendium of my [previous] commentaries,” he said.

While Russia has strict domestic copyright laws, the country is known for piracy of international music, film and book content. The office of the US trade representative placed Russia on the priority watch list in its annual report on the world’s worst copyright violators in April.

The director of Algoritm, Sergei Nikolayev, admitted that prior permission had not been sought from Harding to use his writings in the new book.

“If he [Harding] surfaces then we will come to some agreement and pay him a fee,” Nikolayev said.

He declined to comment on Lucas’s or Jensen’s claims, saying he was not familiar with their cases and had been off work for several days.

Algoritm, founded in 1996, describes itself as one of Russia’s leading publishers specialising in controversial political and social content. It has printed works by a number of senior Russian officials including deputy prime minister Dmitry Rogozin and nationalist firebrand Vladimir Zhirinovsky.

All the books in question appear in the Project Putin series, which consists of more than 20 titles about the president and his political views.

Other titles in the collection include those apparently authored by former US secretary of state Henry Kissinger, murdered Russian opposition politician Boris Nemtsov and Russian political scientist Andrei Piontkovsky.

Piontkovsky said he had given permission for his writings to be published in three titles for Algoritm and praised the series on Putin. “It’s a good series and they have put out a lot of good books,” he said.

Moscow-based American journalist Michael Bohm also said that abook published in his name, President Putin’s Mistake, had been printed without his knowledge.

Bohm, a former Moscow Times editor, said he had been contacted by the publishers in April about a possible collaboration, but discussions fizzled out without anything being signed.

The material in the book was taken from his interviews and articles, Bohm said, including work originally published in English.

“When you translate someone’s work, there’s always the risk of translation and mistranslation … there are mistakes in there,” said Bohn, adding that Algoritm had not responded to his query after he discovered the book last month.

Algoritm head Nikolayev said in an interview with radio station Ekho Moskvy on Sunday that the publishing house had held talks with Bohm. “I think that we will sign an agreement and everything will be fine,” Nikolayev said.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/201...g-luke-harding