A statement from Novaya Gazeta on the end of its existence

Novaya Gazeta says it will end operations on November 9, after more than 30 years, because Russian authorities have left its newsroom without a place to work or the means to fund itself. Its offices have been lost, its reader-donation platform shut down, its website blocked, its publishing licence revoked, and its printing press seized; the newspaper says it has been barred from publishing in any form. The editors describe these measures as a coordinated campaign involving state agencies and security services, and say they can no longer report freely on the war in Ukraine or other major events. Several colleagues have fled Russia, while staff and contributors have faced violence, searches, arrest, and prosecution. The statement recalls six colleagues murdered for their work and cites the acid attack on publisher Dmitry Muratov and the abduction and beating of columnist Elena Milashina.

The editors present the newspaper’s closure as evidence of a broader destruction of Russian civic life and constitutional government. They argue that censorship, criminal penalties for dissent, weakened elections and civil society, and the erosion of judicial independence have made constitutional guarantees meaningless. They reject comparisons that minimize current repression as merely digital or less severe than past eras, stressing that people are imprisoned and killed. In their view, the state has betrayed the Constitution it claims to defend, while treating personal convictions and the defense of rights as crimes. The newspaper says it continued working for nearly five years under pressure, but has now been forced to stop; it promises one final issue and thanks readers who have supported and listened to it.