'They killed us' – Pressure from Russian authorities forces closure of Novaya Gazeta
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Novaya Gazeta will shut down on Nov. 9 after Russian authorities made it impossible to continue its more than three decades of work, the independent news outlet reported on Oct. 30.
"(The Russian authorities) claim they are defending the constitutional order. No, this is an anti-constitutional order. Because the Constitution has been raped, beaten, and left gagged in prison for a long sentence," the Novaya Gazeta staff wrote.
"In this country, human rights and freedoms have been abolished, and defending them is now equated with a crime. Elections and elected bodies have been effectively eliminated. Public institutions have been dismantled. Freedom of conscience and human dignity have been trampled. Private life has been turned inside out by dirty hands."
Novaya Gazeta was founded in 1993 and was known for its investigative coverage. Six of its journalists died under suspicious circumstances over the course of the newspaper's run, including the murder of Anna Politkovskaya, who reported on Russian military abuses during the Chechen wars.
Increased censorship in Russia following the start of the full-scale war against Ukraine made it almost impossible for independent outlets like Novaya Gazeta to continue to operate within the country.
Several staff members went into exile, and after Russian authorities made collaboration with printing houses impossible, the publication was forced to switch to an online-only format. Russian authorities subsequently revoked its media license and blocked access to the website from within Russia.
Novaya Gazeta Europe was founded abroad in 2022, but it exists as a separate publication.
A number of Novaya Gazeta's journalists who remained in Russia were targeted, with reporter Elena Milashina severely beaten in 2023 while working on the ground in Chechnya, and reporter Oleg Roldugin arrested in April 2026 on alleged illegal use of personal data.
Russian authorities forced the news outlet to vacate its office on Oct. 28, and its donation system was subsequently cut off, making it impossible to continue working.
"This is not just our personal story. This is the story of a country and a society that are being crushed in exactly the same way," the Novaya Gazeta staff wrote. "They killed us."
