Novaya Gazeta, widely regarded as Russia's most celebrated independent newspaper, closed its Moscow offices on Monday, pointing to unrelenting pressure from government officials and the security services.
The paper had been the last major independent media outlet critical of the Kremlin still operating inside Russia. Most others shut down or relocated abroad after President Vladimir Putin ordered the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
In a statement published on Oct. 30, the newspaper said the authorities had "forced our editorial team to cease operations." It added: "Human rights and freedoms have been abolished in this country, and defending them is now treated as a crime." The statement said elections and elected bodies had been effectively dismantled, civil society wiped out, and freedom of conscience and human dignity trampled.
Founded in 1993 by Dmitry Muratov and the last Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, with money from Gorbachev's 1990 Nobel Peace Prize, Novaya Gazeta built its name on fierce reporting about human rights abuses and corruption. Six of its journalists have been killed, among them Anna Politkovskaya, who documented atrocities during the second Chechen War and was shot dead in her apartment building in 2006.
On Monday, the paper's final day in its office, journalists quietly took down the portraits of their slain colleagues from the newsroom walls. Tatiana Britskaya, editor of the investigations desk, said she had expected the closure almost daily for the past four and a half years, describing the newsroom as more than a workplace: it was, she said, the staff's home, and they were losing it.
Pressure on the outlet intensified as the Kremlin cracked down on critics after the war in Ukraine began. Muratov, who shared the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize with Philippine journalist Maria Ressa, was attacked on a train in 2022 by an assailant who doused him with red paint, severely irritating his eyes. He stepped down as editor in 2023 after being designated a "foreign agent." The paper itself was fined over accusations of discrediting Russia's armed forces, labelled a foreign agent, stripped of its media registration, and saw its online platforms blocked, its printing house seized and its reader donation system shut down. The final blow was an order to vacate its Moscow offices.
As reporters filed out and gathered in the street, a new sign was placed over the nameplate that once marked the newspaper's office. It read: "Here lived Novaya Gazeta." Editor-in-chief Sergei Sokolov said he believed the paper would one day return "with renewed strength," adding that he was sure the country, caught in a terrible era, would eventually stir, and that Novaya Gazeta would then come back to its readers and colleagues.
Muratov said the blame for the war and the suppression of free speech lay with the Kremlin, not ordinary Russians. "We cannot blame the citizens themselves for this, especially the wonderful, truly remarkable younger generation. I urge you to distinguish between the Russian authorities and the Russian people," he said.
The Kremlin maintains that censorship laws are necessary in wartime, denies holding any political prisoners, and says it is prosecuting subversive activity. Spokesperson Dmitry Peskov described the closure as part of a "rotational process" in a fiercely competitive media environment.
Some Novaya Gazeta staff who left Russia in 2022 went on to found a separate outlet, Novaya Gazeta Europe, which has been sharply critical of the Kremlin and its military campaign in Ukraine.
