Novaya Gazeta Shuts Moscow Newsroom, Last Major Independent Outlet in Russia

Novaya Gazeta, Russia's most celebrated independent newspaper, closed its Moscow offices on Monday, saying it could no longer withstand relentless pressure from the government. According to ABC News and CBC, it was the last major independent outlet critical of the Kremlin still operating inside Russia.

Journalists spent the final day taking down portraits of colleagues who were killed. The newspaper's staff say the closure ends a run of more than three decades marked by investigations into corruption and human rights abuses.

How Novaya Gazeta got here: key dates

• 1993: CBC reported that Dmitry Muratov and the last Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, launched the paper, using money from Gorbachev's 1990 Nobel Peace Prize.
• 2006: Reporter Anna Politkovskaya, who covered atrocities during the second Chechen War, was fatally shot in her apartment building. She is one of six Novaya Gazeta journalists who have been killed.
• February 2022: President Vladimir Putin sent troops into Ukraine. Other independent outlets either closed or moved abroad, and repression intensified sharply.
• 2022: Muratov, the longtime editor-in-chief, was attacked on a train when an assailant poured red paint over him, causing severe eye irritation. Some staff left Russia and opened a separate outlet, Novaya Gazeta Europe.
• 2023: Muratov, who shared the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize with Philippine journalist Maria Ressa, stepped down as editor after Russian authorities named him a "foreign agent."
• Oct. 30: The newspaper published a statement saying authorities and security services had "forced our editorial team to cease operations."
• Monday: The newspaper was ordered out of its Moscow offices and staff left the building.

The pressure that preceded the closure

Before the eviction, the newspaper had already been stripped of much of its ability to function. According to the reports, it was fined after being accused of discrediting Russia's armed forces and was declared a foreign agent. Authorities blocked all of its online platforms, seized its printing house and revoked its media registration. They also shut down the donation system that let readers support it financially.

In its October statement, the newspaper said human rights and freedoms had been abolished in Russia and that defending them was now treated as a crime. It also said elections and elected bodies had been effectively dismantled and civil society wiped out.

What the staff and the Kremlin said

Tatiana Britskaya, editor of the investigations desk, said she had expected the closure almost every day for the past 4½ years. She called the decision incredibly difficult because the office was a home and not just a workplace.

As reporters gathered in the street, a new sign was fixed above the old nameplate. It read, "Here lived Novaya Gazeta."

Editor-in-chief Sergei Sokolov said he believed the paper would return one day with renewed strength. He said he was sure the country would eventually stir and that the paper would come back to its readers and colleagues once the first signs appeared.

Muratov, according to CBC, urged people to distinguish between the Russian authorities and the Russian people. He said the Kremlin, not ordinary citizens, was to blame for waging the war and suppressing free speech.

The Kremlin has defended its censorship laws and denies there are political prisoners. It says Russia is taking necessary action in wartime to prosecute people engaged in subversive activity. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov described the newspaper's closure as part of a rotation process in a fiercely competitive media environment, CBC reported.

Why it matters: what the closure means for readers

For people inside Russia, the closure removes the last major domestic outlet that regularly challenged the Kremlin. With its online platforms blocked, its registration revoked and its donation system shut down, the newspaper had already lost the main ways it reached readers and funded its work.

For readers elsewhere who follow Russia, it narrows the sources of critical reporting produced from inside the country. Critical coverage now comes from outlets that moved abroad, including Novaya Gazeta Europe, which was set up by former staff and remains sharply critical of the Kremlin and its military action in Ukraine. The newspaper's Moscow staff have not announced plans beyond Sokolov's statement that it intends to return.

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Around Prague, based on reporting by ABC News, CBC