Russia's top independent newspaper shuts down, blaming pressure from authorities

Russia's most renowned independent newspaper, Novaya Gazeta, on Friday announced its closure after more than three decades of operation, blaming relentless official pressure.

“They have killed us,” it said in an editorial statement, announcing that it will shut its office on Nov. 9 after publishing its final issue. “The Russian authorities and the Russian security services have forced our editorial team to cease operations.”

There was no immediate comment from Russian authorities.

Novaya Gazeta was launched in 1993 with assistance from former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, who used part of his 1990 Nobel Peace Prize money to fund it. It was Russia's last major independent media outlet critical of the Kremlin after others either shut or had their websites blocked after President Vladimir Putin sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022.

The paper has been a target of a sweeping crackdown on dissent that has intensified after the start of the conflict in Ukraine. Authorities have methodically targeted people and organizations critical of the Kremlin, branding many “foreign agents” and declaring some “undesirable” under a law that made membership in “undesirable” organizations a criminal offense.

Novaya Gazeta has long been a thorn in the Kremlin’s side. Six of its journalists were killed, including Anna Politkovskaya, who reported on atrocities during the second Chechen War at the start of Putin’s first term as Russian president. She was shot dead in her apartment building in 2006.

Five men were convicted of involvement in her murder in 2014, but there has never been a ruling on who ordered her death.

The newspaper's longtime editor-in-chief Dmitry Muratov, who shared the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize with Philippine journalist Maria Ressa, was attacked on a train in 2022 by an assailant who poured red paint over him, causing severe discomfort to his eyes. Muratov stepped down as editor in 2023 after being named a “foreign agent” by Russian authorities.

The newspaper's closure follows years of pressure

As part of the Kremlin's rampant crackdown on critics, Novaya Gazeta was fined after it was accused of discrediting Russia’s armed forces. It was labeled a foreign agent, a designation that carries strong pejorative connotations and implies additional government scrutiny.

Authorities also blocked all of the paper’s online platforms, seized its printing house and revoked its media registration.

In a final blow, the newspaper has received the order to clear its premises and authorities also shut the donation system that allowed it to receive support from readers.

“This is not just our own private story,” the newspaper said Friday. “It is the story of a country and a society that are being systematically destroyed in the very same way. More than thirty years of life, shared with this country and its citizens, will end for us on the street — destitute and under the constant threat of repression."

Novaya Gazeta says Russian security agencies effectively ‘privatized’ the state

The paper blamed the Federal Security Service, or FSB, the main successor agency to the Soviet-era KGB, as well as the Justice Ministry and the Prosecutor General's office, charging that they have effectively “privatized the state and usurped power.”

It said the crackdown has violated the constitution, adding that its ban on censorship now sounds like a “cruel mockery.”

“The constitution itself has been raped, beaten, gagged, and thrown into prison for a long, long time,” the newspaper's statement said. “Just like thousands of the country’s own citizens who simply followed its provisions."

One of the newspaper's leading journalists, Oleg Roldugin, has been awaiting trial and the newspaper's offices have been searched.

“Human rights and freedoms have been abolished in this country, and defending them is now treated as a crime,” the newspaper said. ”Elections and elected governing bodies have been effectively dismantled, civil society institutions have been wiped out, freedom of conscience and human dignity have been trampled underfoot."

Some of Novaya Gazeta’s staff who moved abroad launched a new project, Novaya Gazeta Europe, which has been sharply critical of the Kremlin and its military action in Ukraine.