On 30 October, the editors of Novaya Gazeta announced that the independent Moscow daily, in print for more than thirty years, will cease publication on 9 November.
Editor-in-chief Sergei Sokolov was arrested and interrogated on 15 October following a raid on his home. After receiving an eviction notice at its offices on 19 October, the newspaper made the decision to cease operations for fear of being designated an “extremist organisation” and having all its journalists arrested. Since September 2026, the outlet has been on the Kremlin’s list of “foreign agents”.
Thus, one of the last bastions of Russia’s independent press is set to disappear, a victim of the Kremlin and state security apparatus’ ever more intense crackdown on all forms of independent reporting and dissent. In a bitter farewell message, Novaya Gazeta’s editorial staff describe the state’s latest power grab – their eviction from their premises and the closure of their donation system – as an “assassination” that violates the Russian Constitution, which the government no longer even pretends to respect. As a final gesture, the newspaper has opened its archives, making 93,933 articles published between 2000 and 2026 free and available online.
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