Novaya Gazeta sets November closure after pressure in Russia
Russia’s investigative newspaper Novaya Gazeta says it will end operations on November 9, after pressure that its editors attribute to state authorities. The announcement follows moves to evict the remaining staff from its Moscow office and restrictions on fundraising. A separate European publication set up by former staff continues to operate.
Geopolitics··Evening
Russian newsroom to close
Novaya Gazeta, the Russian investigative newspaper, announced on October 30 that it would cease operations, with November 9 set as the formal closing date. The editorial board said the authorities had forced it to stop. Remaining staff had begun to be evicted from the newspaper’s Moscow editorial offices the previous day.[1], [2]
Editor-in-chief Sergei Sokolov said the newspaper would shut down its servers and leave its premises on November 9. Earlier in October, authorities searched his home and took him for questioning over a case involving his colleague Oleg Roldugin. Roldugin had been arrested in April and charged with unlawful access to computer information.[1], [2]
Restrictions after the invasion
The newspaper had already suspended most of its work in March 2022, after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Its publishing licence was subsequently revoked. The editors said the war had deprived journalists of the opportunity to report the central events of their time, following repeated warnings from a government regulator.[1], [2]
United Nations human rights chief Volker Turk described the closure as another devastating blow to independent media in Russia. He said restrictive legislation, tighter state controls and harassment of journalists had intensified since the invasion. Even the editors’ announcement carried a legally required foreign-agent warning, reflecting a designation also imposed on the publication.[1], [2]
Investigative reporting and the European edition
Founded in the early 1990s with financial help from former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, Novaya Gazeta became known for long-form investigations. Its longtime editor Dmitry Muratov shared the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize. Anna Politkovskaya, whose reporting covered the wars and repression in Chechnya, was shot dead in her Moscow apartment building in October 2006.[2]
Reporter Yury Shchekochikhin, who investigated military corruption and the 1999 Moscow apartment bombings, died suddenly in July 2003; colleagues suspected poisoning. Some of the newspaper’s editorial staff established a separate European edition in Paris in 2024 with support from Reporters Without Borders, the press-freedom organisation. That team operates separately from the newsroom now closing in Russia.[2]
