Novaya Gazeta closes: Russia's independent newspaper shuts its Moscow newsroom, saying 'We have been killed'
Novaya Gazeta, one of Russia's last independent newspapers, ceases to exist on Monday 9 November, more than three decades after it was founded. In a farewell statement published on 30 October, its staff wrote: 'We have been killed. On November 9th, we will turn off the lights in the home where we have lived for 30 years, shut down our servers, and leave.' The paper said it had been evicted from its Moscow offices and its reader-donation platform shut down, leaving it with no resources, after years of repression that cost five of its journalists their lives. Its exiled sister paper, Novaya Gazeta Europe, continues from Riga.
Key points
- Novaya Gazeta ceases to exist on Monday 9 November, ending 33 years of independent reporting from Moscow.
- Its farewell statement: 'We have been killed' — the staff will switch off the lights, shut the servers and leave their Potapovsky Lane home of 30 years.
- The final blows were eviction and the shutdown of its donation platform, after the loss of its licences in 2022 and a 'foreign agent' label in September.
- Five of its journalists have been killed since 2000; its exile sister paper, Novaya Gazeta Europe, continues from Riga.
What happened
Novaya Gazeta survived longer inside Russia than almost any other independent outlet: through the murder of its reporters, the loss of its licences after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and the censorship laws that drove most independent newsrooms into exile in 2022. Its Moscow remnant kept publishing in reduced forms until the eviction and the donations shutdown removed the last means of operating.
Its archive — nearly 94,000 articles published between 2000 and 2026 — is being moved to GitHub by its team, Novaya Gazeta Europe says, so the record survives the newsroom.
Claim by claim
Why this label: The paper's own farewell statement, quoted by the Committee to Protect Journalists and reported in the same words by CNN and Le Monde. That the paper blames the authorities is its stated position; the closure steps themselves are in the claims below.
On the ladder: a claim earns Verified from primary evidence, or from two independent sources that do not copy each other.
Why this label: CPJ's account of the final steps, matching the paper's own statement to CNN: 'We were evicted from our home and our donations platform… has been shut down. We have been stripped of all our resources. Entirely.'
On the ladder: a claim earns Verified from primary evidence, or from two independent sources that do not copy each other.
Why this label: CPJ's documented chronology of the measures against the paper.
On the ladder: a claim earns Verified from primary evidence, or from two independent sources that do not copy each other.
Show all claims (3 more)
Why this label: CPJ's list of the paper's killed journalists and the lawyer Stanislav Markelov, killed alongside journalist Anastasiya Baburova in 2009.
On the ladder: a claim earns Verified from primary evidence, or from two independent sources that do not copy each other.
Why this label: CPJ's history of the paper and of the exile edition, whose deputy editor told CPJ the closure of the Moscow newsroom 'does not mean the end of Russian independent journalism'.
On the ladder: a claim earns Verified from primary evidence, or from two independent sources that do not copy each other.
Why this label: CPJ regional director Fiona O'Brien's statement — the committee's position, carried as such.
On the ladder: a claim earns Verified from primary evidence, or from two independent sources that do not copy each other.
What we know / what we don't know yet
What we know
- The closure date, the farewell statement's words, the eviction and the donations shutdown — from the paper's own statement and CPJ's documentation.
- The chronology of measures against the paper since 2022, and the five journalists killed, on CPJ's records.
What we don't know yet
- What the Moscow staff do next — the paper told CNN it will publish one final issue, then 'take a pause, reflect, and come up with a new life for ourselves'.
- Any response from the Russian authorities to the paper's account of its closure — none was in the reporting read.
Why it matters
The paper was the best-known surviving proof that independent journalism could still operate inside Russia. Its closure, on its own account forced by the authorities, leaves Russians with exiled outlets reachable mainly by VPN — and removes a newsroom that held power to account from within the country for a generation.
Background
Show the background timeline (6)
Novaya Gazeta is founded in Moscow, partly funded with Mikhail Gorbachev's Nobel Peace Prize money.
Anna Politkovskaya, the paper's Chechnya correspondent, is shot dead in her apartment building.
Editor-in-chief Dmitry Muratov shares the Nobel Peace Prize for safeguarding freedom of expression.
The paper suspends publication after regulator warnings, then loses its print and online licences.
The paper and people associated with it, including Muratov, are labelled 'foreign agents'.
The farewell statement: the paper will cease to exist on 9 November.
Update history
No silent edits. Every change is written here, with its time.
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Published on the day the paper closes. Basis: Novaya Gazeta's own farewell statement and the Committee to Protect Journalists' record.