Novaya Gazeta, one of Russia’s best-known independent newspapers and the last to maintain an openly critical stance towards the Kremlin, has announced the complete cessation of its operations. After years of pressure, censorship, threats and persecution of its journalists, the editorial team says it has been forced to close its doors.
“They have killed us,” the newspaper said in a statement announcing that on November 9, the lights will be switched off in the building where its editorial team has worked for 30 years, its servers will be shut down and its journalists will leave.
“The newspaper no longer exists. The Russian authorities and security services have forced us to completely cease our activities,” the statement continued.
Founded in 1993, two years after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Novaya Gazeta became one of the most important voices of independent journalism in Russia. Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev also supported its founding, while its former editor-in-chief, Dmitry Muratov, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2021.
The newspaper is also known for the journalists it has lost over the years. Seven of them have been murdered during Vladimir Putin’s rule. Among them was investigative journalist Anna Politkovskaya, who reported on the war in Chechnya, corruption and abuses of power by the Russian authorities. She was shot dead at the entrance to her apartment building in Moscow on October 7, 2006, the Russian president’s birthday.
Pressure on the newspaper has intensified significantly in recent years, particularly following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. In March of that year, the newspaper suspended publication after criticising the war. Part of its editorial team relocated to Riga, Latvia, where it continued working online, but that version was also blocked by Russian authorities.
Despite the difficulties, most of the journalists remained in Moscow and tried to continue their work. However, police raids, arrests and charges against journalists continued.
Just two weeks ago, security forces searched the home of the newspaper’s current director, Sergei Sokolov, and took him to the Moscow Investigative Committee, where he was questioned for three hours. He was later released without any official explanation. Reporters Without Borders described the move as another attempt to intimidate journalists.
Meanwhile, another Novaya Gazeta journalist, Oleg Roldugin, was arrested in the spring of this year and remains under house arrest, accused of illegally using and possessing personal data.
Last April, police also searched the newspaper’s premises, while on September 4 it was added to the Russian authorities’ list of organisations and individuals designated as “foreign agents”. The list also includes 106 of its journalists and contributors. This designation can carry prison sentences of up to 10 years.
Reporters Without Borders has condemned the ongoing pressure, warning that the Russian authorities are seeking to eliminate one of the country’s last remaining independent journalistic voices.
“The Kremlin’s campaign against Novaya Gazeta aims to silence one of the last voices of independent journalism still operating in Russia,” said Jeanne Cavalier, the organisation’s head of Eastern Europe, in mid-October.
With the closure of Novaya Gazeta, another independent media outlet is disappearing from Russia’s media landscape after years of confrontation with censorship and pressure from the authorities.
