Novaya Gazeta, Russia’s oldest and most prominent independent newspaper, announced Friday that it will end its run after more than three decades in operation.
“They’ve killed us,” the newspaper said in a farewell statement published on its website. “The Russian authorities and security services have forced our newsroom to shut down.”
Novaya Gazeta said it still plans to release one final edition before turning off its servers and vacating its office in central Moscow on Nov. 9. The total number of people losing their jobs is unclear.
Founded in 1993 with support from former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, Novaya Gazeta built an uncompromising reputation for investigative reporting. The publication routinely exposed government corruption, police brutality, election fraud and human rights abuses in Chechnya, while also probing Russian military operations overseas.
Six of its reporters have been killed over the years in what rights groups believe were retaliatory assassinations linked to their investigative work, including investigative reporter Anna Politkovskaya.
Novaya Gazeta suspended print publication shortly after President Vladimir Putin ordered the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 due to censorship laws that effectively criminalized critical reporting of the war. Courts later revoked its media license, forcing it to publish online.
Novaya Gazeta has faced growing pressure from law enforcement authorities, including the arrest and prosecution of managing editor Oleg Roldugin, who is awaiting trial on accusations of illegally gathering and using personal information following his arrest in April.
Earlier this month, police raided the apartment of editor-in-chief Sergei Sokolov before taking him in for questioning and subsequently releasing him. The raid was part of an investigation into Roldugin.
The announcement of Novaya Gazeta’s closure follows reports that it would be evicted from its Moscow office. News of the eviction came as former editor-in-chief Dmitry Muratov was on his way to France to attend a memorial event to mark the 20th anniversary of Politkovskaya’s murder.
Muratov won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2021 for his “efforts to safeguard freedom of expression.”
Russia’s Justice Ministry designated Novaya Gazeta a “foreign agent” in September of this year, placing it among an already large list of independent news publications the Kremlin has targeted for their critical coverage of the war in Ukraine, icluding The Moscow Times.
An employee of the newspaper, speaking on condition of anonymity, told The Moscow Times that all signs had indicated the authorities would continue their pressure campaign, with harsher designations such as “undesirable” or “extremist” likely looming.
“The only step left on this trajectory is the destruction of the people themselves, including criminal charges and arrests,” the employee said. “They already have one of us hostage — Oleg Roldugin.”
In its farewell statement on Friday, Novaya Gazeta said: “We’ve managed to work in tight isolation under the watch of the security services for almost five years of war. And now, we’ve found ourselves in the ‘kill zone’.”
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