Novaya Gazeta announces permanent closure after decades of pressure from Russian authorities

Russia's premier independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta announced it will permanently close on November 9, 2026, ending 33 years of operation amid escalating official repression. Founded in 1993 with Nobel Peace Prize funds from Mikhail Gorbachev, the outlet survived website blocks, license revocations, office evictions, and the murders of six journalists, including Anna Politkovskaya. Editorial leadership cited state efforts to choke off funding and criminalize independent reporting following Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

Novaya Gazeta announces permanent closure

• ▪Russian independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta announced on October 30, 2026 that it will permanently cease operations on November 9, 2026.
• ▪Novaya Gazeta announced it will publish one final issue before turning off its servers and vacating its central Moscow newsroom on November 9, 2026.

Russian government actions against Novaya Gazeta

• ▪Russian authorities ordered Novaya Gazeta's eviction from its Moscow headquarters of 30 years on Potapovsky Lane and shut down its reader donation platforms.
• ▪Russian authorities revoked Novaya Gazeta's media licence, blocked its website, designated the outlet a foreign agent, and seized its printing press.
• ▪Russian police arrested Novaya Gazeta journalist Oleg Roldugin in April 2026 on computer information charges and searched editor-in-chief Sergei Sokolov's home in October 2026.

Wartime reporting and censorship

• ▪Following Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Russian authorities enacted strict censorship laws prohibiting media from describing the conflict as a war.
• ▪Novaya Gazeta published a bilingual Russian-Ukrainian edition describing the conflict as madness shortly after Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Killed Novaya Gazeta journalists

• ▪Six Novaya Gazeta journalists have been killed since its founding, including Igor Domnikov, Yuri Shchekochikhin, Anna Politkovskaya, Stas Markelov, Anastasia Baburova, and Natalia Estemirova.
• ▪Novaya Gazeta investigative journalist Anna Politkovskaya was shot dead in her Moscow apartment building in 2006 after reporting extensively on human rights abuses in Chechnya.

Novaya Gazeta Europe

• ▪Exiled former employees of Novaya Gazeta launched Latvia-based Novaya Gazeta Europe in 2022, which Russian authorities subsequently designated as an undesirable organization.
• ▪Latvia-based Novaya Gazeta Europe will continue operating despite being banned as an undesirable organization and the closure of Novaya Gazeta inside Russia.

Novaya Gazeta's Nobel Peace Prize legacy

• ▪Novaya Gazeta co-founder Dmitry Muratov was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2021 for defending freedom of expression in Russia.
• ▪Novaya Gazeta was launched in 1993 using funds from former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev's 1990 Nobel Peace Prize.