The Russian newspaper Nóvaya Gazeta, owned by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Dmitry Muratov and the only independent left in the country, announced yesterday its temporary closure until the end of what is known in Russia as the “Special Military Operation” (Invasion of Ukraine) due to a series of warnings
Novaya Gazeta, the last independent newspaper in Russia, was closed until the end of the war. The newspaper received warnings from the Russian media regulator. (Head of Media) Against the backdrop of growing pressure against the free press on the part of the Putin regime.
“We have received two warnings from Roscomandzor (head of communications), so we better close, because if we get a third warning they can take our license from us and that means our disappearance,” the newspaper’s spokeswoman Nedzhda Frozenkova told EFE news agency. She said the paper would stop appearing in print, and also in its online version. He claims the newspaper has 40 million monthly visits.
“There is no other solution for us, it is a terrible and painful decision. But we must protect each other,” Dmitry Muratov wrote in a letter to daily readers. He said his newsroom had been operating for 34 days “under conditions of military censorship” since Moscow launched an offensive against Ukraine.
Muratov notes that his journalists covered the war zones in Ukraine and reported the extent of the “loss and destruction”. Muratov added: “We tried to understand how our people allowed two wars to be fought simultaneously: one, of occupation, in Ukraine, and another, almost civilian, at home, in Russia.” On March 22, Muratov announced that he was selling his Nobel Prize medal in favor of the Ukrainian refugees.
The newspaper Nubaya Gazeta was criticized by the Russian government for not detailing a non-governmental organization mentioned in one of its articles that was allegedly a “foreign agent” by the Russian authorities, as required by law.
The newspaper received its first warning on March 22, and a second warning last Monday. The newspaper has already stopped reporting on the Russian military campaign, after passing the law of severe fines and up to 15 years in prison for spreading what the authorities consider “false information” about the Russian army.
The paper launched its first 1,000-copy edition on April 1, 1993. Mikhail Gorbachev bought eight computers with some of the money he received as the Nobel Peace Prize (in 1990), which allowed Mortov and his colleagues to set up the paper after the fall of the Soviet Union. In recent weeks, the Russian authorities have shut down the other two most critical media outlets against the Kremlin: the Echo Moscow radio station and the Doge TV channel.