MOSCOW — Independent Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta said on Friday that it will shut down on November 9, after what it described as a relentless campaign by the authorities that saw state prosecutors pursue some of its senior journalists and left it without financial support and an office, Reuters reported.
Source: Reuters
"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 newspaper no longer exists. The Russian authorities and the Russian security services have forced our editorial team to cease its operations," Novaya Gazeta said in a statement.
The editorial team must leave its office on Potapovsky Lane in Moscow, where its journalists have worked for nearly 30 years, according to OVD-Info, which monitors repression in Russia. The paper said its reader donation system was disconnected along with the eviction demand, describing the moves as a "coordinated action", and said a final issue will still be released.
Source: OVD-Info
"More than 30 years of our life shared with our country and its citizens will end, leaving us homeless, with no means of existence and under the constant threat of repression. We carried on as long as we could, but we were evicted from our home and our donations platform that allowed us to receive financial support from our readers has been shut down. We have been stripped of all our resources," the statement said.
A long squeeze since the war began
In September, Russia's Ministry of Justice added Novaya Gazeta to its "foreign agents" register, after which the paper was unable to restore its donation system because businesses and banks refused to cooperate with it, OVD-Info reported. In April, law enforcement officers searched the paper's Moscow office in connection with a criminal case against its investigative journalist Oleg Roldugin over the alleged unlawful use of personal data.
Like other media outlets not run by the state, Novaya Gazeta has come under increasingly intense pressure since Russia launched its full-scale war in Ukraine in 2022 and sweeping censorship rules were introduced, mandating long jail terms for discrediting the Russian army or disseminating what the authorities deem to be fake news, Reuters reported. There was no immediate comment from the Russian 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.
A newspaper that lost six journalists
Founded in 1993, Novaya Gazeta has often been highly critical of the authorities. Six of its journalists, including investigative journalist Anna Politkovskaya, have been murdered in varying circumstances over the years, Reuters noted. The Anna Politkovskaya Museum, opened in her former office in 2021 on the 15th anniversary of her murder, is now being closed and portraits of killed colleagues are being taken down from the walls, the editorial team wrote in a letter to readers.
The paper's publisher is Dmitry Muratov, who jointly received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2021 for efforts to safeguard freedom of expression. What happens to the newspaper's online archive after the servers are switched off on November 9 has not been announced.