The End of Russia’s Bravest Newspaper

What the report says

Novaya Gazeta, one of Russia’s best-known independent newspapers, has shut down after more than 30 years of covering the country’s political climate under Vladimir Putin, according to The New York Times. The paper was closely associated with investigative reporting on corruption, human rights abuses and the war in Chechnya, and it became widely known as the workplace of journalist Anna Politkovskaya, who was killed in 2006.

The Times reported that the newsroom held the last editorial meeting on Monday, with one final issue expected in the coming weeks. The closure followed years of mounting pressure from Russian authorities, including blocked access to its website, loss of its media license, nationalization of its printing presses, raids on the newsroom and the detention of one of its journalists. The paper was also labeled a “foreign agent,” a designation that can bring major restrictions in Russia.

According to the article, the immediate reason for the shutdown was practical as well as political: the landlord declined to renew the lease after 20 years, and banks stopped processing reader donations, which had become the outlet’s only remaining revenue source. Editors concluded they could not continue. The paper’s staff had tried to keep operating from inside Russia, even as many other independent journalists left the country.

The closure matters because Novaya Gazeta had long been regarded as one of the last major independent voices inside Russia, with a record of reporting that many readers and journalists saw as unusually courageous.