Russia’s independent publication “Novaya Gazeta” has ceased operations in the country after more than 30 years of work. The newsroom shut down its servers and left its office on Potapovsky Lane in central Moscow after announcing that it could no longer continue working.
“On November 9, we will turn off the lights in the home where we lived for 30 years, shut down the servers and leave. The newspaper no longer exists,” the newsroom said in a farewell statement. It said that the Russian authorities and security services had forced the team to cease its activities.
The newsroom lost its office and funding
The decision to shut down was announced on October 30, after the publication’s management received a notice to vacate the office building. Editor-in-chief Sergey Sokolov said the journalists had been given little time to move and that no new premises had been found.
At the same time, the system for accepting reader donations, which had provided funding for the newsroom, was discontinued. According to “Novaya Gazeta,” private companies and banks had refused to provide services because of internal corporate policies.
By ceasing its activities in Moscow, the publication also closed the museum dedicated to journalist Anna Politkovskaya. She was killed in 2006 because of her work and publications about the war in Chechnya and human rights violations.
Pressure on the publication has intensified since 2022
“Novaya Gazeta” stopped publishing its print edition in March 2022 after two warnings from Russia’s media regulator, Roskomnadzor. In September of the same year, a court revoked the print edition’s license, and the operation of its online version in Russia was later also terminated.
On September 4, 2026, Russia’s Ministry of Justice added “Novaya Gazeta” to the register of foreign agents. In April this year, investigative actions were carried out at the newsroom as part of a case related to the alleged unlawful use of personal data. The circumstances surrounding the investigation were reported by Russian law enforcement authorities.
The newspaper was founded in 1993 and became one of Russia’s best-known independent publications. Its former editor-in-chief, Dmitry Muratov, received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2021 together with Philippine journalist Maria Ressa.
After the beginning of the full-scale war in Ukraine, some of “Novaya Gazeta’s” journalists left Russia and established “Novaya Gazeta Europe,” which continues to operate outside the country. The closure of the Russian newsroom does not automatically mean the termination of the activities of this separate publication.
Sources: apnews.com, vedomosti.ru, lemonde.fr