What happened
Novaya Gazeta, a leading independent Russian news outlet, has announced it is shutting down and has accused the country's authorities of effectively killing it. According to the BBC, a statement on the paper's website said: "They've killed us. The newspaper is no more." The statement added that Russian authorities and special services had forced the paper to stop its work.
The BBC reported that the outlet received an eviction order. At the same time, the system that allowed it to receive donations from readers was disabled. With that channel closed, the paper said, there was no remaining way to fund the publication.
The BBC said staff at the newspaper's offices had already begun packing.
A record of investigative reporting
For three decades Novaya Gazeta was among the most high-profile independent outlets in Russia. According to the BBC, it built a reputation for fearless investigative reporting on corruption, human rights violations and abuse of power by officials and bureaucrats, all hazardous subjects in Russia.
The paper said six journalists connected with it were killed for "fulfilling their professional and civic duty." They include Anna Politkovskaya, who was shot dead in the stairwell of her apartment block 20 years ago this month. Among the subjects she reported on were the wars in Chechnya.
One of the paper's founders in the 1990s, and for many years its chief editor, was Dmitry Muratov. He received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2021 for efforts "to safeguard freedom of expression, which is a precondition for democracy and lasting peace." Authorities nonetheless declared him a "foreign agent" in 2023.
Years of mounting pressure
The BBC said pressure on independent journalism in Russia has grown since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Soon after the start of what the Kremlin calls a "special military operation," new laws were adopted that were aimed at punishing dissent and silencing criticism of the war and of those in power.
Novaya Gazeta had already faced many difficulties. Authorities had revoked its licence and blocked access to its website, and several of its journalists and contributors had been designated "foreign agents," a label often used against critics. Earlier this year, police searched the editorial office. Veteran investigative journalist Oleg Roldugin was arrested and charged with "unlawful access to computerised information." In connection with that case, editor-in-chief Sergei Sokolov was recently taken in for police questioning and his home was searched.
Despite this, the paper kept operating in reduced form, the BBC reported, with loyal readers using virtual private networks to get around the website block. The loss of its licence and other restrictions nonetheless dealt a major blow.
What the paper is saying
In its closing statement, Novaya Gazeta described the situation as a "coordinated act" and blamed "the repressive state apparatus." It said: "Human rights and freedoms have been eliminated in the country and their protection has been equated to a crime." It added that the courts had been destroyed along with the law, and that having personal convictions is now state treason.
Other outlets framed the closure in similarly stark terms. Headlines cited by the BBC's summary included the Guardian's report that Russian society is being "systematically crushed," and CBS News's description of the paper as Russia's last independent newspaper. The source material did not include any response from the Kremlin.
