?One of the most prominent contemporary Bulgarian writers, Alek Popov, has signed an open letter to denounce Putin regime's new laws 'putting writers at risk'.

An assembly of more than 200 leading international authors – including Salman Rushdie, G?nter Grass, Margaret Atwood, Jonathan Franzen, Wole Soyinka, Elfriede Jelinek and Orhan Pamuk Carol Ann Duffy, Julian Barnes, Ian McEwan and Neil Gaiman - has formed to denounce the "choke hold" they say the country's anti-gay and blasphemy laws place on freedom of expression.

In an open letter published in Britain's Guardian newspaper, the writers said recent legislation outlawing religious insult and the "propaganda of non-traditional sexual relations" among minors, along with the recriminalisation of defamation, "specifically put writers at risk".

They vowed not to stand by "as we watch our fellow writers and journalists pressed into silence or risking prosecution and often drastic punishment for the mere act of communicating their thoughts".

"A healthy democracy must hear the independent voices of all its citizens; the global community needs to hear, and be enriched by, the diversity of Russian opinion," it said.

"We therefore urge the Russian authorities to repeal these laws that strangle free speech."