Novaya Gazeta to close after Russian authorities force it out

Newsroom announces closure

Novaya Gazeta, an independent Russian newspaper, said on Friday, 30 October 2026, that it is ending its activity. The paper's editors said Russian authorities and security services had forced the editorial team to stop work. The newsroom plans to turn off the lights in its Moscow building on 9 November, shut down its servers and leave. In the paper's own words, the newspaper no longer exists.

“We have been killed. Novaya Gazeta is ending its life. On 9 November we will turn off the lights in our building, where we lived for 30 years.”

Eviction and frozen donations

The newsroom is being pushed out of its office on Potapovsky Lane in central Moscow, where it had worked for about 29 years. Sergei Sokolov, the editor-in-chief, told readers of the eviction in a letter dated 28 October, writing that no new premises had been found and that staff had been given little time to pack. The donation system that allowed readers to contribute was disabled at the same time. According to Sokolov, companies and banks refuse to process payments to the paper, citing their corporate internal rules. The Anna Politkovskaya museum, opened in her former office on 7 October 2021, on the 15th anniversary of her killing, is closing together with the newsroom.

Years of pressure

The paper was founded in 1993 by journalists from Komsomolskaya Pravda, among them Dmitry Muratov and Sokolov. Muratov, a former editor-in-chief, shared the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize. The newsroom says he was attacked and left almost blind, and that no criminal charges were brought even though investigators knew who was responsible. Several of the paper's journalists were killed over the years, including Anna Politkovskaya, who was shot dead in the entrance of her apartment building. Before her death she had sharply criticised Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov and written about war crimes in Chechnya.

Restrictions since 2022

The paper suspended work in late March 2022 after warnings from Roskomnadzor, then resumed publishing. In autumn 2022 a court annulled the licences for its print edition and website, and the newsroom later launched new print formats alongside its online output. Some journalists left Russia after the war in Ukraine began and launched Novaya Gazeta Europe, which Russian authorities later declared an undesirable organisation. In September 2026 the Ministry of Justice entered Novaya Gazeta in the register of foreign agents.

What comes next

The closure is scheduled for 9 November 2026, when the lights, servers and office will be shut down. In the letter to readers, Sokolov wrote that the staff would be left on the street with no means of living.

“Thirty-plus years of life together with the country and its citizens will end on the street, without means of subsistence, under constant threat of repression.”

The timeline below sets out the dates reported so far, from the museum's opening in 2021 to the planned shutdown.