Key facts
- Novaya Gazeta held its final editorial meeting and began vacating its central Moscow office on November 9, 2026.
- The paper said a campaign of state pressure had made it impossible to continue reporting.
- Novaya Gazeta announced in late October 2026 it would close after being designated a "foreign agent".
- Banks stopped processing reader donations the paper relied on for its financial survival.
- Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov called the closure part of "a standard rotational process" in Russian media.
Russian investigative newspaper Novaya Gazeta was winding up its operations on November 9, 2026 and preparing to leave its central Moscow office after holding its final editorial meeting. The paper said a campaign of state pressure had made it impossible to carry on reporting.
The paper was founded by Mikhail Gorbachev, the last Soviet leader, with money from his 1990 Nobel Peace Prize. It kept publishing through a sharp tightening of censorship after Russia launched its full-scale war in Ukraine in 2022.
Novaya Gazeta announced in late October 2026 that it would have to close after it was designated a "foreign agent" and banks stopped processing reader donations on which it relied for its financial survival. Its offices and the home of its editor were searched, and another senior journalist is under house arrest awaiting trial.
"The most awful thing is that we who lead editorial teams cannot protect our journalists," former editor in chief Dmitry Muratov told an audience in London in October 2026. Muratov shared the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize, dedicating it to six slain colleagues, including investigative journalist Anna Politkovskaya, who wrote about Russia's wars in the Chechnya region.
The Kremlin, which accuses foreign intelligence services of trying to stir discontent in Russian society, has said some censorship is necessary while Russia is locked in what it calls an existential struggle with the West over Ukraine. Some hardliner war bloggers have accused Novaya Gazeta of systematically promoting an anti-Russian narrative, an allegation the paper has repeatedly dismissed as false.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov played down the closure on November 9, 2026, calling it part of "a standard rotational process" in which some media close and their places are taken by newcomers in what he described as a fiercely competitive media environment.