Prosecutors ban bookstore from selling rods designed to smack schoolchildren's bottoms

The Samara district attorney has banned the Metida bookstore chain from selling birch-rods designed for disciplining schoolchildren. According to prosecutors, the sale of this item is illegal, insofar as it promotes violence against minors.

On September 11, Russia's Federal Antimonopoly Service opened an administrative case against Metida for advertising the rods. The ad looked like this:

Metida: "Textbooks, notepads, office supplies, backpacks, with huge sales! Discilpinary birch-rods 99.9 rubles. Instilling knowledge!"

According to the district attorney, the rods are sold with instructions explaining that they should be applied "with a small amount of force to the child in need of discipline and repeated as many times as necessary." The instructions also caution against using the rods for flagellation. Metida says schoolchildren should be motived to study better simply in the presence of a birch-rod.