Novaya Gazeta said on October 30, 2026, that it would cease work and leave its Moscow newsroom on November 9. Its editorial statement said staff would shut down the servers as they departed.
The newspaper said an eviction notice coincided with the loss of its reader-donation system, leaving it without operating funds. Its journalists attributed the two developments to coordinated pressure from Russian authorities and security services.
Novaya Gazeta loses its office and donation channel
Amnesty International said financial organizations had stopped providing services after the editorial team received a foreign-agent designation on September 4, 2026. The rights group said the landlord had ordered staff to leave. They had worked in that office for 29 years.
Denis Krivosheev, Amnesty’s deputy director for Eastern Europe and Central Asia, said authorities bore responsibility despite private actors carrying out those measures. He called on Russia to end pressure on independent media and remove laws restricting freedom of expression.
Earlier restrictions and searches
Amnesty said authorities blocked the newspaper’s online resources after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. They also removed its media registration. Those steps had already restricted how the newsroom could distribute its work.
Amnesty said investigators searched the newsroom for 13 hours on April 9, 2026, in a case involving alleged computer-access and personal-data offenses. Amnesty said authorities arrested journalist Oleg Roldugin in that case and later placed him under house arrest.
The newspaper’s statement also described searches, prosecutions and attacks against its journalists. It said many staff had faced pressure to leave Russia. The closure, it said, would end more than three decades of work.
A separate publication operates abroad
Radio Svoboda reported that Novaya Gazeta was founded in 1993. After the invasion, some staff who left Russia established Novaya Gazeta Europe as a separate publication; the closure announcement concerns the Moscow-based newspaper.
Radio Svoboda also reported that the editors still intended to release a final issue. The newsroom’s stated departure date remains November 9, following the October 30 announcement.
Sources: Novaya Gazeta — Editorial statement, October 30, 2026, Amnesty International — Response to the closure, Radio Svoboda — Novaya Gazeta announces closure
