Novaya Gazeta to close after Moscow eviction

Novaya Gazeta, a prominent Russian investigative newspaper, will formally stop publishing on November 9. The decision follows a directive from authorities to remove the remaining employees from their editorial offices in Moscow.

Editors confirmed the shutdown in a post on the messaging app Telegram on October 30. The announcement came one day after government officials began the physical eviction of staff from the building.

The publication, established in the early 1990s with partial funding from Mikhail Gorbachev, is ceasing operations after more than three decades of reporting. It suspended most of its work in March 2022, immediately after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The paper had faced increasing pressure from government regulators in the years following the conflict.

The newsroom has a history of staff members dying under suspicious circumstances. Anna Politkovskaya, known for her reporting on the wars in Chechnya, was shot in her Moscow apartment building in October 2006. Yury Shchekochikhin, who investigated military corruption and the 1999 apartment bombings, died suddenly in July 2003 shortly before a planned trip to the United States.

Other journalists associated with the paper who were killed include Igor Domnikov, Stas Markelov, Anastasia Baburova, and Natalia Estemirova. Dmitry Muratov, the longtime editor, shared the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to maintain the newspaper's operations during a repressive media environment.

In 2024, a group of editorial staff launched a European edition based in Paris with the assistance of Reporters Without Borders. This version continued to publish while the Moscow office struggled.

The editors described the situation in Moscow as a "kill zone," a term used for high-casuality areas on the front lines in Ukraine. They noted that for nearly five years, the team worked while surrounded by security services. The post concluded with the statement, "Now it is over."