Sadly, nothing new. My play about the Moscow theatre siege was banned last April after one performance.

GQ’s Provocative Article on Russia Will Be Hard to Find in Russia

By RICHARD PÉREZ-PEÑA

Published: September 4, 2009

Vladimir V. Putin consolidated his power in Russia a decade ago, in part by taking a hard line against Chechen separatists, whom the government had blamed for a series of bombings. In a long investigative article in the current issue of GQ, the writer Scott Anderson explores the possibility that the bombers actually had been working for the Russian government.

But those who have the most at stake in the matter, the Russian people, will be hard-pressed to read the piece. Condé Nast, publisher of GQ, decided not to send copies of the magazine to Russia, to post the article on GQ’s Web site or to include a translated version of it in any of the four magazines it owns in Russia, including a Russian version of GQ.

National Public Radio first reported the company’s moves on Friday, and obtained a memo by a lawyer for Condé Nast that goes so far as to decree that the article should not be publicized, reprinted in any of the company’s dozens of overseas magazines, or shown to Russian officials, journalists or advertisers anywhere in the world.

Maurie Perl, the chief spokeswoman for Condé Nast, declined to comment on any limitations the company had placed on the article, or the reasons for them. But, she said, “we’re mindful of the laws and issues in the countries we publish in.”

Unlike some publishers, Condé Nast routinely withholds articles from its Web sites to encourage people to buy the company’s magazines, including The New Yorker, Vanity Fair and Vogue. Most of the content in its publications abroad is original, but they do sometimes use translations of articles the company has published in the United States — and interest in Mr. Anderson’s article in Russia certainly would have been high.

Gawker.com, the media gossip and news site, posted images of the article, asked Russian-speaking readers to translate it, and began posting the translation.