Novaya Gazeta to shut down after 30 years, editor cites state pressure

Novaya Gazeta will cease publication on 9 November, editor-in-chief Sergei Sokolov announced in a video message posted to the outlet's YouTube channel, blaming Russian authorities and security services for forcing its closure after more than 30 years.

Sokolov said the newspaper had been "killed." He stated that "Novaya Gazeta ends its life" and that on November 9 they would switch off the lights in their house where they had lived for 30 years, shut down the servers and leave.

The pressure was coordinated across multiple fronts. This month, the outlet's landlord gave the editorial office in central Moscow one month to vacate its premises. Simultaneously, the system through which readers donated money to the newspaper was shut off. Sokolov's own apartment was searched and he was briefly detained before being questioned as a witness by the Investigative Committee in connection with an investigation targeting journalist Oleg Roldugin, who faces up to six years in prison on charges of illegally collecting and distributing personal data.

In September, the entire editorial staff — more than 100 journalists and contributors — was designated a foreign agent. Six colleagues were murdered for their work during the current government's tenure, Sokolov said, naming Igor Domnikov, Yuri Shchekochikhin, Anna Politkovskaya, Stas Markelov, Nastya Baburova and Natasha Estemirova.

Former editor-in-chief Dmitri Muratov dedicated the Nobel Peace Prize he received for press-freedom work to those murdered journalists.