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'They Killed Us': Russia's Last Independent Newspaper Falls Silent

By Beauty of Bharat · Published 30 October 2026

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Russia's flagship independent newspaper, Novaya Gazeta, has announced it is closing, with its editor-in-chief saying the paper has been 'killed' by state pressure — a moment press-freedom groups are calling a new low for independent journalism in Russia.

This post reflects reporting available on 30 October 2026, including The Hindu, Le Monde, CNN and AFP via The Hindu and Bytes Europe. Where sources disagree or a detail is unconfirmed, the article says so.

What happened

Novaya Gazeta announced on Friday, 30 October 2026, that it was closing, saying it had been 'killed' by state pressure after years of repression targeting its journalists, The Hindu reported. Current editor-in-chief Sergei Sokolov said in a video statement published on YouTube on Friday morning that 'the Russian authorities — the Russian special services — have forced the editorial team to end its work.'

Sokolov said the paper would switch off the lights in the Moscow home it has occupied for 30 years on 9 November, shut down its servers and leave, according to Le Monde's account of his letter. 'The newspaper no longer exists,' he wrote. The Hindu also reports that a final issue will come out.

The paper's founder, Dmitry Muratov, who jointly won the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize with Philippine journalist Maria Ressa for efforts to safeguard freedom of expression, told AFP the closure was 'part of a giant military campaign being waged by the Russian Federation'. 'We are fierce opponents of war in all its forms. And we are a part that needed to be destroyed,' he said.

How pressure built up

Founded in 1993 after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Novaya Gazeta became one of Russia's most respected outlets for reporting on corruption, human rights abuses and the conduct of the military, with former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev donating some of his Nobel Peace Prize money to help set it up, The Hindu reported. Several of its reporters were murdered in killings widely seen as retribution for their work, including Anna Politkovskaya, found dead in her Moscow apartment block in October 2006.

After Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the paper suspended its print and online editions in Russia following a warning from the media regulator Roskomnadzor, and its media licence was later revoked. It continued in reduced form — online and in occasional print runs of fewer than 1,000 copies, the threshold above which media registration is required, according to Le Monde. Its journalists and editors were questioned, detained and had their homes searched, and the paper was branded a 'foreign agent', a label The Hindu notes is reminiscent of Soviet-era repression.

The pressure intensified in 2026: in September the courts added Novaya Gazeta itself to the foreign agents list, Muratov having already been designated, Le Monde reported. Sokolov was arrested in 2024, and earlier in 2026 a journalist, Oleg Roldugin, was arrested and placed under house arrest pending trial on a charge of unlawful access to computerised information, The Hindu reported. Muratov told AFP the paper had been cut off from the financial systems used by subscribers and told it was being evicted from its building.

Why it matters

The closure removes one of the last outlets inside Russia openly critical of the Kremlin and its war in Ukraine, marking what The Hindu calls a new low in Moscow's campaign against dissenting voices since 2022. Reporters Without Borders chief Thibaut Bruttin said the paper 'will remain the symbol of free, pluralistic, independent, and rigorous journalism', and called on Moscow to end the judicial harassment of its journalists.

One important distinction: the closure applies to the Moscow paper. Novaya Gazeta Europe, founded by exiled journalists and based in Riga, Latvia, will continue to exist, according to Le Monde and CNN. More than 30 journalists from various media outlets are currently in prison in Russia, Le Monde reported.

What is still unconfirmed

The paper's team has not publicly shared its future plans — Muratov told AFP he would not do so, because that would give the security services a target. What, if anything, replaces the Moscow operation after 9 November is therefore unknown.

Context and what to watch

Novaya Gazeta's closure marks the end of a particular era in Russian journalism. Founded in 1993, the paper built its reputation investigating corruption, abuses by those in power and human rights violations, and its founder Dmitry Muratov jointly won the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize — recognition that now reads as a marker of a press freedom that has since been dismantled piece by piece. Editor-in-chief Sergei Sokolov's account of that dismantling is cumulative rather than sudden: its licence was revoked, it was branded a foreign agent, its journalists were detained and searched, and it was cut off from subscriber payment systems and told it would be evicted.

The closure announced on 30 October applies to the Moscow paper, which switches its lights off on 9 November — but it is not quite the end of the name. Novaya Gazeta Europe, founded by exiled journalists and based in Riga, Latvia, continues to operate, and its survival outside Russia is now the main route by which the paper's reporting reaches readers. What to watch is the 9 November switch-off itself, what happens to the Moscow newsroom's journalists, and whether the Europe edition can sustain the investigations that made the original paper's name.

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