He was a best-selling author of novels in Russia; His arrest was requested: Who is Grigory Chkhartishv (Akunin)?

Born in Zestaponi, Georgia, Akunin turned to literature at the age of ten by reading War and Peace at the suggestion of his mother. After his childhood in Tunisia and Japan, he entered the Department of Japanese Philology at the Asian Institute of Moscow State University in 1973. After graduation, he made translations from Japanese literature; He joined the famous Inostrannaya Literatura (Wild Literature) magazine in 1986 as an editor and later became the editor-in-chief.

The author, whose real name is Grigoriy Shalovitch Chartishvili (Grigory Chkhartishv), started using the name Akunin in 1998. It is also said that this name was chosen to evoke the thinker Bakunin, but also because of the Japanese equivalent of Akunin.

Boris Akunin is the pen name of Grigori Chkhartishvili (born 20 May 1956), a Georgian-Russian writer residing in Britain. He is best known as a writer of detective and historical fiction. He is also an essayist and literary translator. Grigory Chkhartishvili has also written under pen names Anatoly Brusnikin, Anna Borisova, and Akunin-Chkhartishvili. His characters include Erast Fandorin, Nicholas Fandorin and Sister Pelagia.

The Erast Fandorin series has been a great success since 1998 when its first book was published. Akunin's books, which quickly became Russia's most successful historical detective writer, were translated into more than thirty languages and adapted for cinema and television. Akunin, an expert on the Tsarist period, is the author of nearly sixty books; Finally, he turned to rewriting the history of Russia.

Bakunin, known for his character as charismatic detective Erast Fandorin, has become one of Russia's most popular writers. The total sales of his books reached 25 million as of 2011. He is compared to Gogol, Tolstoy, and Arthur Conan Doyle.

Akunin criticized Vladimir Putin's domestic and foreign policies and Russia's invasion of Crimea in 2014. In 2012, Putin attributed Akunin's critical attitude to his Georgian origin.

Akunin, who lived in Moscow since 1958, left his country in 2014. Since this date, it has survived in three countries, Great Britain, Spain, and France.

February 2024

The court ruled that the famous dissident and author, whose real name is Grigory Chkhartishvili and who published his books under the name Boris Akunin, be arrested for "justifying terrorism".

The Moscow Court decided that the Georgian writer, who is currently abroad, should be caught and arrested after his arrival in the country.

Russian authorities included the famous author on the list of "terrorists and extremists" in December as a result of a complaint made against him.

A lawsuit was also filed against the Russian writer for "discrediting the army", "legitimizing terrorism" and "spreading fake news" about the Russian army.

Phone conversations of Russian dissident writers were shown as evidence

The telephone conversation he had with two imitator entertainers nicknamed Vovan and Lexus, who were pro-Kremlin officials and introduced themselves as Ukrainian officials, was cited as the most important evidence in the case filed against the anti-war and Ukraine-supporting statements of the Russian writer living in London.

After he was included in the 'terrorist list', Russian publisher AST suspended the printing, distribution, and sale of the famous author's books.

In a statement he made later, 67-year-old Akunin stated that this decision was a turning point and stated that no writer in Russia had been accused of terrorism since the Soviet dictator Stalin.

Akunin expressed his reaction by saying, "This is not a bad nightmare, it is what is happening in Russia right now."