Novaya Gazeta to close Nov. 9 after Russian pressure

Novaya Gazeta, one of the last Russian newspapers openly critical of the war in Ukraine, said Friday it will cease operations on Nov. 9, blaming pressure from Russian authorities and security services.

“We have been killed,” the editorial team said in a statement, as reported by Euronews. The paper has been published for 30 years and is closing its Moscow newsroom after that date.

“On November 9th, we will turn off the lights in the home where we have lived for 30 years, shut down our servers, and leave,” the paper said. “The newspaper no longer exists. The Russian authorities and the Russian security services have forced our editorial team to cease its operations.”

The newsroom said it is being evicted from its headquarters on Potapovsky Lane in Moscow and that the donations platform it used has been closed. “We have been stripped of all our resources. Entirely,” it said, calling the moves a coordinated campaign. One final issue is still to be published.

The paper also said banks that cut it off cited internal rules, which it said are set by the FSB, Russia’s state security service. Euronews reported that the paper’s Anna Politkovskaya museum, opened in the newsroom on Oct. 7, 2021, is closing too. The Moscow Times also reported the closure announcement.

Reaction from other independent Russian media was swift. Meduza said in a statement quoted by Euronews that “the story of the most important independent publication in modern Russia has come to an end.” The outlet called it “the best media outlet in the history of Russia.”

Novaya Gazeta was founded in 1993 by Sergei Kushnerev, Pavel Voshchanov, Akram Murtazaev, Dmitry Sabov and Dmitry Muratov. Its first computers were bought with help from Mikhail Gorbachev, the last Soviet president, Euronews reported. Muratov later shared the Nobel Peace Prize, and in 2022 auctioned his medal to aid Ukraine.

Moscow revoked the paper’s media licence in 2022 and has detained its journalists, according to Euronews. The paper suspended work at the end of March 2022 after warnings from Roskomnadzor, Russia’s media regulator, and later resumed. Some of its journalists have since founded Novaya Gazeta Europe, whose main office is in Latvia.

The Kremlin had not commented in the reports reviewed by Canada News Media. The claims about the role of Russian security services come from the paper’s own statement and have not been independently verified.

The closure comes as the war in Ukraine continues. Canada News Media has also reported on political and legal turmoil in Poland this week.

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Via Euronews and The Moscow Times.