Novaya Gazeta’s Moscow newsroom has no new location after being told to vacate a 29-year office, and its Anna Politkovskaya museum will close, editor-in-chief Sergey Sokolov said.
In an Oct. 28 letter to readers reproduced by Mediazona, Sokolov said the paper had not secured another site after nearly three decades at the Potapovsky Lane office. “A move to nowhere lies ahead,” he wrote.
Sokolov also said banks and businesses declined to handle reader contributions under their internal policies, preventing the newsroom from restoring its donation system.
The Ministry of Justice of Russia added the online publication to its foreign agents register on Sept. 4. The ministry accused it of misleading readers about government decisions and elections, opposing the war in Ukraine, distributing materials from foreign agents and interacting with them.
According to The Economist, staff reached an agreement to close the newspaper during an Oct. 26 meeting. Sokolov’s letter addresses the office eviction and donation system but gives no date for ending online publication; The Economist’s report also supplied no shutdown date. Novaya Gazeta Europe reported Oct. 15 that the publication was continuing online.
The newsroom’s next stated deadline is Nov. 9, when it must leave the office.
