Russian investigative newspaper Novaya Gazeta is winding up its operations after what it says was a campaign of state pressure that made continued reporting impossible.
The paper had remained open despite a sharp tightening of censorship following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. It announced late last month that it would close after being designated a “foreign agent” and losing access to reader donations, which it relied on to survive financially.
Novaya Gazeta was founded by former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev using money from his 1990 Nobel Peace Prize. Its offices and the home of its editor have since been searched, while another senior journalist is under house arrest awaiting trial.
Former editor-in-chief Dmitry Muratov, who shared the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize, said the situation had exposed the inability of newspaper leaders to protect their staff.
“The most awful thing is that we who lead editorial teams cannot protect our journalists,” Mr Muratov told an audience in London last month.
He dedicated his Nobel prize to six colleagues who had been killed, including investigative journalist Anna Politkovskaya, who reported on Russia’s wars in the restive Chechnya region.
The Kremlin has previously said some censorship is necessary while Russia is engaged in what it describes as an existential struggle with the West over Ukraine. It has also accused foreign intelligence services of attempting to provoke discontent within Russian society.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov played down the closure of Novaya Gazeta on Monday, describing it as part of “a standard rotational process”. He said some media outlets closed while newcomers took their place in what he characterised as a fiercely competitive media environment.
Some hardline war bloggers have accused Novaya Gazeta of systematically promoting an anti-Russian narrative, a claim the newspaper has repeatedly rejected.
A lengthy article published by the paper described journalists packing up and leaving their offices. Senior journalist Irina Vorobyova said its spirit would endure like a “good virus”.
“Not even a nuclear explosion could destroy it. It will continue in everyone who was part of it,” she said.
