‘They killed us’: Russia’s last independent newspaper falls silent amid pressure from Kremlin
Novaya Gazeta to End Operations After Years of Escalating Pressure
Healfromzero.com – One of Russia’s best-known independent newspapers is preparing to close after three decades of reporting that often put it at odds with the country’s authorities. Novaya Gazeta said Friday that it would cease operations, describing the decision as the result of sustained pressure from Russian security services and regulators.
Editor-in-chief Sergei Sokolov announced that the newsroom’s final shutdown is planned for November 9. The paper’s closure marks another major loss for independent journalism in Russia, where the space for reporting outside state-approved narratives has narrowed sharply since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
“Novaya Gazeta has been killed,” Sokolov said in a video statement.
“On November 9, we will turn off the lights in the home where we have lived for 30 years. We will shut down our servers and leave…The Russian security services have forced the editorial team to cease operations.”
A newspaper with a record of difficult investigations
Founded in the early 1990s with support linked in part to former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, Novaya Gazeta became widely associated with investigative reporting on corruption, abuse of power and misconduct within Russian state institutions. Its relationship with the Kremlin was frequently confrontational, particularly as the newspaper pursued stories that challenged official accounts.
For years, the paper was led by Dmitry Muratov, who received the Nobel Peace Prize in October 2021 alongside Philippine journalist Maria Ressa. The Nobel Committee recognized both journalists for their efforts to protect freedom of expression.
The publication’s work came at a profound cost. Six of its journalists have been killed during the newspaper’s three-and-a-half decades in operation. Among them was Anna Politkovskaya, a prominent critic of President Vladimir Putin whose reporting examined human rights violations in Chechnya. She was shot dead outside her Moscow apartment in 2006, on Putin’s birthday.
Muratov himself was attacked in April 2022 while traveling by train from Moscow to Samara. He said assailants threw red paint mixed with acetone at him. The newspaper said the assault nearly caused him to lose his sight, while those responsible were released.
Pressure intensified after the invasion of Ukraine
The crackdown on Novaya Gazeta accelerated after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. In March 2022, Russian lawmakers made it a criminal offense to distribute information deemed “fake” if it discredits the Russian military. The measure contributed to the departure of many journalists from the country, including people connected to Novaya Gazeta.
That same month, the newspaper halted both its print edition and online publication inside Russia after receiving a warning from Roskomnadzor, the country’s media regulator. The warning followed Muratov’s participation, along with other leading independent journalists, in an interview with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
A separate outlet, Novaya Gazeta Europe, continues to operate from Riga, Latvia. Its existence reflects the broader migration of Russian-language independent media beyond Russia’s borders as journalists seek to continue working in safer conditions.
Russian authorities later revoked Novaya Gazeta’s license and blocked its website within the country. The paper and Muratov were also designated as “foreign agents,” a label that has increasingly been applied to people and organizations viewed by the state as connected to foreign influence. Beyond its political effect, the designation can bring extensive reporting obligations and financial penalties.
Resources exhausted, newsroom says
In its Friday statement, the publication said it had been stripped of the practical means needed to remain open. The newsroom said it had been forced out of its premises and lost access to the donation system through which readers had offered financial support.
“We carried on as long as we could, but we were evicted from our home and our donations platform that allowed us to receive financial support from our readers has been shut down,” Novaya Gazeta said.
“We have been stripped of all our resources. Entirely.”
The shutdown also follows legal pressure involving Oleg Roldugin, an investigative journalist at the paper who was arrested earlier this year on allegations of unlawful access to computerized information. Sokolov was detained for questioning, and his home was searched in connection with that case.
Novaya Gazeta said it could no longer continue under its established name and intended to release one final edition before pausing to consider what might come next.
“We cannot continue working under the name ‘Novaya Gazeta.’ ‘Novaya’ no longer exists. One final issue will be published — and that’s it. After that, we’ll take a pause, reflect, and come up with a new life for ourselves.”
A shrinking information environment
Sokolov said the newspaper’s demise should be understood as part of a broader decline in access to independent information within Russia. His description of the country’s media landscape emphasized the difficulty ordinary people face when trying to verify events beyond official messaging.
“The information space in Russia has disappeared,” Sokolov said.
“People do not know, and have no way of finding out, even what is happening in the neighboring street, because the sources of news available to them are either stories about a Russia that does not exist or propaganda promoting the way of thinking the ruling elite wants to impose on the public.”
Muratov has remained publicly engaged in efforts to seek the release of Russian political prisoners. The end of Novaya Gazeta’s operations does not erase its archive of investigative work or the significance of its journalists’ reporting. But the closure removes another longstanding institution from Russia’s domestic independent media landscape at a time when the ability to publish, fund and distribute critical reporting has become increasingly limited.
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