Novaya Gazeta held its final editorial meeting Monday as the Russian investigative newspaper prepared to close after losing reader donations while preparing to leave its Moscow office, Reuters reported.
Banks stopped processing donations after Russia designated the paper a foreign agent, Reuters reported. Amnesty International said landlords demanded the newsroom’s departure and financial groups declined to serve it after the designation.
The newspaper’s editorial staff blamed Russian authorities and security services for forcing it to stop reporting. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov described the closure as “a standard rotational process,” saying new publications would replace those that close.
Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev helped found Novaya Gazeta with money from his 1990 Nobel Peace Prize. Former editor-in-chief Dmitry Muratov shared the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize and dedicated it to six slain colleagues, including Anna Politkovskaya, who reported on the wars in Chechnya.
In its Oct. 30 closure announcement, the newsroom said it would leave the office and shut down its servers Nov. 9. It also planned one final issue but gave no publication date.
