Russia’s independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta announced Friday it was shutting down its remaining operations after a state pressure campaign in which an editor-in-chief was prosecuted and its financial support and premises confiscated.
“We were killed,” the publication, created with Nobel Peace Prize money from the last Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, said in a statement.
The newspaper discontinued its print edition in Russia in 2022, but continued to produce content online and operate from its office in central Moscow.
“On November 9, we will turn off the lights in the house where we have lived for 30 years, close our servers and leave,” the text reads. “The newspaper no longer exists. The Russian authorities and the Russian security services have forced our editorial staff to cease its activities.”
Novaya Gazeta, a thorn in the side of the Russian authorities
There was no immediate comment from authorities, who called the publication a “foreign agent.”
But the Kremlin – which accuses foreign intelligence services of trying to stir up discontent within Russian society – has said in the past that some censorship is necessary at a time when Russia is “locked in what it describes as an existential struggle with the West over Ukraine.”
Prominent war blogger Rybar gave a taste of how the publication is perceived in some official circles, reposting a rant accusing Novaya Gazeta of systematically promoting an anti-Russian “narrative” and gloating over the difficulties faced by the Russian state.
Founded in 1993, in line with Gorbachev’s vision of “glasnost” or openness, Novaya Gazeta (“New Newspaper”) has become one of Russia’s most influential newspapers and democracy advocates with its investigations into corruption and critical coverage of Russian politics.
Dmitry Muratov, its co-founder and longtime editor-in-chief, shared the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize, dedicating it to six colleagues killed because of their work, including investigative journalist Anna Politkovskaya, who wrote about Moscow’s wars in the restive Chechnya region.
Pressure exerted by the consequences of the war in Ukraine
Like other non-state-run but critical media outlets, Novaya Gazeta has come under increasing pressure after Russia launched its full-scale war in Ukraine in 2022. Sweeping censorship rules have been introduced, imposing lengthy prison sentences for “discrediting” the Russian military or spreading what authorities consider to be fake news.
“Since the start of the “special military operation” in Ukraine and the initiation of criminal proceedings for “discrediting the Russian army”, we cannot report on the most critical and tragic events of our time,” the newspaper writes. “Censorship applies to “virtually all spheres of civic life.”
Many of its own journalists and those from other media outlets fled Russia in 2022, he adds. Some of its former employees launched a separate Latvia-based print and online publication called Novaya Gazeta Europe, which Moscow authorities labeled an “undesirable organization,” effectively banning it in Russia. It will continue to work.
In Russia, Novaya Gazeta noted that its website had been blocked, its printing license revoked and its presses seized, and that one of its editors, Oleg Roldugin, was under house arrest awaiting trial on allegations that he misused personal data, an “offense punishable by a prison sentence of up to 10 years.”
His offices in central Moscow – from which he is currently being expelled – were also raided by authorities, and the home of Sergei Sokolov, his editor-in-chief, was also raided this month.
“We continued as long as we could,” Novaya Gazeta said in its farewell statement.
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