Russia's Novaya Gazeta, the country's last major independent newspaper, announced Friday that it will cease operations on November 9, bringing an end to more than three decades of journalism critical of the Kremlin.

Editor-in-Chief Sergei Sokolov announced the closure in a video statement shared on YouTube, saying that "the Russian government, Russian special services, forced the editorial team to stop its work." In an editorial statement, the newspaper declared: "They have killed us." The closure comes after the staff learned they were being evicted from their Moscow newsroom on Potapovsky Lane, where journalists had worked for nearly 30 years, and as the system enabling readers to donate to the paper was simultaneously switched off, cutting off its only remaining source of funding.

Founded in 1993 with money from former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev's Nobel Peace Prize award, Novaya Gazeta became Russia's leading outlet for investigative reporting on corruption and human rights abuses. The newspaper's prominence rested partly on the work of Anna Politkovskaya, an investigative journalist who reported on alleged atrocities during the Chechen wars. Politkovskaya was shot dead in her Moscow apartment building in October 2006; her murderer was later pardoned by Russian authorities in 2023 after joining the military to fight in Ukraine. Six journalists affiliated with the newspaper have been killed over the years. In 2021, the newspaper's then-editor Dmitry Muratov was jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize with Philippine journalist Maria Ressa for defending freedom of expression. Muratov stepped down as editor in 2023 after Russian authorities designated him a "foreign agent."

The newspaper's closure culminates years of escalating government pressure. Following Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Russian authorities revoked Novaya Gazeta's media license, blocked its online platforms, seized its printing equipment, and fined it for alleged violations of laws against "false information." In September 2026, the Justice Ministry designated the newspaper a "foreign agent." Sokolov said the newspaper's staff would now "end on the street, with no means of subsistence and under the constant threat of repression." Some staff members left Russia and launched a sister outlet in Europe, which Russian authorities have also blocked inside the country.

In its closing statement, Novaya Gazeta directly accused the Federal Security Service (FSB), the Justice Ministry, and the Prosecutor General's Office of driving the crackdown on independent journalism. The newspaper alleged these institutions had "privatized the state and usurped power" while violating constitutional protections against censorship. "The constitution itself has been raped, beaten, gagged, and thrown into prison for a long, long time," the statement said, "just like thousands of the country's own citizens who simply followed its provisions."

With Novaya Gazeta's closure, there are no longer any major independent newspapers operating inside Russia. Independent radio station Ekho Moskvy and the TV Rain network have already shut down operations or relocated outside the country under similar pressure from authorities. Katya Kotrikadze, news director for TV Rain, told CBS News that the closure was unsurprising, saying: "There was no freedom of speech and media in Russia for years now, it has been destroyed for years now." She added that Putin "has burned all the bridges and has stopped all the imitation of democracy and freedom of everything in Russia."

International organizations responded to the announcement. Reporters Without Borders said Novaya Gazeta "will remain THE symbol of free, pluralistic, independent, and rigorous journalism -- a model for the entire profession around the world." Amnesty International called the closure "a devastating loss for everyone in Russia who turns to independent, investigative journalism to uncover the truth." The Nobel Prize Committee also responded, with its president calling on Russian authorities to "end their repression of independent media" and saying the closure was "a grave blow to freedom of expression and the public's right to information."