Novaya Gazeta announces closure of its Moscow newsroom
Staff say a criminal case, eviction and the loss of donation funding leave the newspaper no choice but to close, with its office and servers due to shut on 9 November.
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Staff say a criminal case, eviction and the loss of donation funding leave the newspaper no choice but to close, with its office and servers due to shut on 9 November.
The newspaper had continued publishing in a reduced form after losing its media registration. Staff said a criminal case against a journalist, eviction from the newsroom and the loss of donation funding had now made continued work impossible.
Editor-in-chief Sergei Sokolov accused Russian authorities and special services of forcing the team to stop. The newspaper’s statement also blamed Russia’s Justice Ministry and prosecutors.
In October, the newspaper’s landlords told staff to vacate their longstanding premises in central Moscow by the shutdown date. Press-service head Nadezhda Prusenkova told the Guardian that the pressure had become intolerable. Staff said all donation platforms had been shut down, leaving the newspaper without funding.
Co-founder and former editor-in-chief Dmitry Muratov told the BBC that banks were refusing to accept readers’ donations. The newspaper said banks and private companies cited “internal corporate rules” when refusing donation-processing services; it linked those refusals to pressure from Russian special services.
Investigative journalist Oleg Roldugin was arrested in April 2026 and charged with unlawful access to computerized information. He pleaded not guilty. Sokolov was also questioned, and his home was searched in connection with the case.
Novaya Gazeta said Roldugin was awaiting trial under house arrest, extended until 10 November 2026.
Novaya Gazeta suspended its print edition in March 2022 after warnings from Roskomnadzor, Russia’s media regulator. A court revoked its media registration in September that year.
Muratov and a core team stayed in Moscow and published magazines with print runs of 999 copies, using an exemption from licensing for magazines with fewer than 1,000 copies. The website also kept operating despite being blocked in Russia. Readers used virtual private networks, services that route internet connections around such blocks, to reach it.
Russia’s Justice Ministry designated the newspaper a foreign agent on 4 September 2026. Muratov had received the same designation in 2023.
Exiled former employees established Novaya Gazeta Europe, a legally distinct outlet. The closure announcement concerns the Moscow newspaper.
Founded in 1993, Novaya Gazeta became known for investigations into corruption, human rights violations and abuse of official power. Muratov jointly won the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize for efforts to safeguard freedom of expression.
The newspaper says 6 colleagues were killed for fulfilling their professional and civic duty. They include Anna Politkovskaya, who reported extensively on the Chechen wars and was shot dead in 2006. The memorial museum in her former newsroom office will close with the newspaper; Prusenkova said its exhibits would go into storage for now.
The editorial team plans to publish the final issue already in preparation. Prusenkova said the journalists would probably try to find a way to continue working. Muratov said he did not know what would happen next.
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