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By Brendan Cole
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The closure of the independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta is a "very bad sign for what's left of press freedom in Russia," a journalist who worked there for 16 years told Newsweek.
The newspaper, which reported fearlessly about the presidency of Vladimir Putin, closed its doors for the final time on Monday after years of pressure from Russia's authorities and security services that had become intolerable.
"Frankly, it's absolutely devastating," Elena Racheva, a former special correspondent at the publication, said on Tuesday.
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What Was Novaya Gazeta and Why Did It Close?
The newspaper was established in 1993 thanks in part to money given by the Soviet Union's last president, Mikhail Gorbachev, from his Nobel Peace Prize winnings three years earlier.
Print editions used to appear three times a week and proved to be a thorn in the side of the Kremlin. It exposed corruption among Russian government officials and human rights violations by Russian troops during the wars in Chechnya, Russia's republic in the Caucasus, at a time when very few journalists were prepared to do so.
The paper also investigated the apartment bombings in Russia in September 1999 that killed hundreds of people and became one of the defining events of Putin's rise to power.
"Novaya's journalists reported from five wars, investigated terrorist attacks and corruption at the highest levels of government, negotiated with terrorists, helped free hostages and prisoners, and documented human rights abuses and war crimes," Racheva said.
Its former longtime editor-in-chief, Dmitry Muratov, also won the Nobel Peace Prize—in 2021—for his efforts to defend free speech in an increasingly restricted media environment.
Each of its print editions sold more than 100,000 copies, but the presses ceased in 2022 due to a Kremlin media crackdown that followed Putin's invasion of Ukraine on February 24.
"Novaya was probably the most prominent and influential independent newspaper still operating inside Russia," said Racheva, who is currently a Leverhulme early career fellow at the University of Manchester in England.
"Throughout the war, its journalists were among the very last to continue reporting from within the country rather than from exile, taking all the risks that came with it."
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She said the paper always occupied a rather unusual place in Russian journalism, somewhere between investigative reporting and human rights activism.
"Unlike most newsrooms, we didn't measure our success in page views or clicks," she said
"Our KPIs were the number of criminal investigations opened after our stories, the number of innocent people released from prison, the people rescued from captivity, and the cases of corruption we managed to expose or stop.
How Did the Authorities Crack Down on Novaya Gazeta?
The pressure against the paper continued to build over the course of the war with Ukraine as a clampdown against dissent deepened.
In April, the newspaper's office was searched for 12 hours, and one of its editors, Oleg Roldugin, was arrested and is awaiting trial, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.
On September 4, the Russian Justice Ministry designated the paper a "foreign agent," accusing it of spreading false information about government decisions and opposing Russia's war in Ukraine.
On October 15, investigators searched the home of Novaya's editor-in-chief, Sergei Sokolov, and took him in for questioning.
Its sister publication based in Latvia, Novaya Gazeta Europe, was blocked by the Russian authorities in September.
Novaya Gazeta's Russian media license was revoked and staff vacated their Moscow office, citing pressure from authorities and the blocking of systems to receive donations from readers.
"The fact that even this newspaper has now been forced to close sends a very clear message to every other journalist in the country—working here is becoming practically impossible and increasingly dangerous; you and your newsroom could be next," Racheva said.
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What Was the Response to the Paper's Closure?
The paper's closure gained international media attention with broadcast images of staff removing boxes and taking down pictures including those of six of its journalists who were killed for what the paper said were politically motivated reasons.
One was Anna Politkovskaya, who was shot dead by her home on Putin's birthday in 2006. The 20th anniversary of her death was marked on October 7.
In a statement on Monday, the European Parliament said that the paper is "the latest victim of an authoritarian regime which suffers no dissenting voice or opposition."
The U.K. Foreign Office said that the paper's closure was "a stark reminder of the sustained pressure facing independent journalism in Russia."
Rights groups like Reporters Without Borders and Amnesty International also condemned the move.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov rejected the closure as meaning the era of independent Russian media is coming to an end, saying, "the Russian media is highly diverse and is developing in a highly competitive environment."
Muratov told CNN that he was leaving a bottle of vodka for the premises' next tenant but there is no toasting what happens next for independent media in the country.
With the Kremlin controlling the country's television channels as well as broadsheet and tabloid newspapers, Racheva said there will be even fewer independent voices left inside Russia. That means the rapidly deteriorating human rights situation, political repression and growing social problems linked to soldiers returning from the war in Ukraine will not be covered.
"Perhaps even more importantly, it will become harder to understand what Russian society actually looks like and what ordinary Russians think about the war," she said.
There is an ecosystem of independent Russian media members working in exile, such as Meduza, Proekt, the Insider and the TV station Rain. However, their websites are blocked, activities banned and people who work for or distribute them can face criminal prosecution.
Muratov had used his international reputation and contacts to advocate for Russian political prisoners.
"The latest attack on Novaya is also a warning that this kind of work is potentially dangerous," Racheva said. "That's perhaps the most frightening part of all this. It's not just about silencing journalists—it's about making sure that the most vulnerable and powerless people in Russia have nobody left to speak for them."
Contact Newsweek editors on this story: Henry Holloway and Dave Siminoff.
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