One of Russia's last remaining independent news outlets, Novaya Gazeta, has announced it is shutting down. In a statement released on Friday, the editorial team said: "We have been killed." The paper, which has been a thorn in the Kremlin's side for three decades, will turn off its servers on 9 November and leave its Moscow headquarters on Potapovsky Lane.
The announcement marks the end of an era for Russian journalism. Founded in 1993 with the help of former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, Novaya Gazeta was known for its investigative reporting and its willingness to challenge the authorities. It was one of the few outlets that openly criticised Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, which began in February 2022.
Since then, the pressure has been relentless. Moscow revoked the paper's media licence in 2022, and several of its journalists have been detained. The outlet says its team is now being evicted from its offices, and the online platform it used to collect reader donations has been shut down. "We have been stripped of all our resources. Entirely," the statement read, describing a "coordinated campaign" by the state.
The paper's editors were blunt about who they believe is behind the crackdown. "Banks which have cut us off tell us they are merely following internal corporate rules. They don’t tell us that the rules they follow are set by the FSB, the state security service, embedded in every organisation. They see the country as their personal fiefdom," they said.
Since the invasion, Novaya Gazeta has been unable to report on what it called "the most critical and tragic events of our time." Censorship, it said, now applies to "virtually every sphere of civic life." Despite the shutdown, the paper plans to publish one final issue.
Solidarity from independent journalists
Independent Russian journalists have rallied around the outlet. In a statement published by Meduza, they called Novaya Gazeta "the most important independent publication in modern Russia." They highlighted its record of investigations, its awards—including the Nobel Peace Prize won by editor-in-chief Dmitry Muratov in 2021—and the journalists it has lost, including Anna Politkovskaya, who was murdered in 2006.
"By all measures this was the best media outlet in the history of Russia," the statement said. The museum dedicated to Politkovskaya, which opened in her former office on the 15th anniversary of her death, will also close.
The closure is a stark reminder of the shrinking space for independent media in Russia. As the war in Ukraine continues, with Russian strikes causing casualties in cities like Zaporizhzhia and Odesa, the loss of a critical voice like Novaya Gazeta leaves a void that will be hard to fill.
European observers have long seen Novaya Gazeta as a beacon of press freedom in a country where such freedoms are increasingly under threat. Its closure is likely to resonate across the continent, where defence cooperation against Russian aggression is a growing priority. The paper's final issue will be a testament to its three decades of independent journalism, and a reminder of what is at stake.
