Novaya Gazeta has announced it will shut down, with editor-in-chief Sergei Sokolov saying in a video statement that on November 9 the paper will switch off its servers and leave the offices it has occupied for 30 years. The paper’s statement opened with the words “They’ve killed us,” and Sokolov blamed the Russian authorities and special services for forcing the editorial team to stop work. The announcement came two weeks after Sokolov was questioned by investigators in Moscow over alleged unlawful use of personal data, in a criminal case against his colleague Oleg Roldugin, who has been detained and charged with unlawful access to computerized information, an offence carrying up to 10 years in prison, and has pleaded not guilty. Founded in 1993, the paper was one of the few critical outlets left in Russia; its former editor Dmitry Muratov dedicated his 2021 Nobel Peace Prize to six colleagues killed for their work, among them Anna Politkovskaya.
Novaya Gazeta shuts down after decades of Kremlin pressure
Novaya Gazeta, one of the last independent newspapers in Russia, has announced it will cease operations on November 9, saying the authorities and special services forced its editorial team to end more than 30 years of work.
Why it matters: The closure removes one of the few remaining critical voices inside Russia, where censorship since the 2022 invasion of Ukraine has reached near-Soviet levels and most independent journalists have been exiled or labelled foreign agents.
Data as of Deutsche Welle report of October 30, 2026 (with Reuters, AFP and dpa), read in full in this run; the announcement was also reported the same day by the Guardian, France 24, Al Jazeera and the New York Times. No Kremlin response to the closure was quoted in the reporting read.
Sources
- Russia: Critical newspaper 'Novaya Gazeta' to close - Deutsche Welle - 2026-10-30