Novaya Gazeta closes operations after state pressure

Russian independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta is winding up its operations and preparing to leave its central Moscow office after holding its final editorial meeting, the publication said. The newspaper said a campaign of state pressure had made it impossible to carry on reporting.

Closure details

Novaya Gazeta said on Friday, October 30, 2026, that it was winding up its remaining operations. Its final issue will be published on November 9, 2026. The publication said: "The newspaper no longer exists. The Russian authorities and the Russian security services have forced our editorial team to cease its operations."

The paper said: "On November 9, we will turn off the lights in the home where we have lived for 30 years, shut down our servers, and leave."

Pressure on the newspaper

The newspaper said it had been set up with money from the Nobel Peace Prize of the last Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev. It was founded in 1993 in line with Gorbachev’s vision of “glasnost” or openness, and became one of Russia’s most influential newspapers and defenders of democracy with its investigations into corruption and critical coverage of Russian politics.

Dmitry Muratov, its co-founder and long-time editor-in-chief, shared the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize, dedicating it to six colleagues who had been killed because of their work, including the investigative journalist Anna Politkovskaya, who wrote about Moscow’s wars in the restive Chechnya region.

The newspaper said its website had been blocked, its print license revoked and its presses seized. Its offices in central Moscow have been searched by the authorities, and it is now being evicted. The home of Sergei Sokolov, its editor-in-chief, was also searched this month.

One of its editors, Oleg Roldugin, was under house arrest awaiting trial on allegations that he misused personal data, an offence that carries a prison term of up to 10 years.

Context

Novaya Gazeta halted its print edition inside Russia in 2022, but had continued to produce online content and operate from its office in central Moscow. The newspaper said that since the start of the “special military operation” in Ukraine and the introduction of criminal charges for “discrediting the Russian army,” it could not report on the most critical and tragic events of its time, and that censorship applies to virtually every sphere of civic life.

Many of its journalists and those from other outlets fled Russia in 2022. Some former employees began a separate Latvian-based print and online publication called Novaya Gazeta Europe, which the Moscow authorities designated an “undesirable organisation,” effectively banning it within Russia. It will continue to operate.

The publication had been designated a “foreign agent” by the authorities. There was no immediate comment from the authorities. The Kremlin 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.

Why it matters

The closure removes one of Russia’s most prominent independent newspapers from domestic operations, leaving Novaya Gazeta Europe as the publication’s continuing outlet outside Russia.

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Sources

• france24.com: 'Novaya Gazeta', an independent Russian newspaper critical of Putin, closes - France 24
• rappler.com: Russian independent paper Novaya Gazeta finally forced to close its doors

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