Login
Novaya Gazeta: Putin’s Russia Has Silenced Another Voice of Freedom
The closure of Novaya Gazeta, one of Russia’s last independent newspapers is a chilling reminder that authoritarian governments have always understood the danger posed by journalists who refuse to toe the official line.
There are few more revealing characteristics of an authoritarian regime than its determination to silence independent journalism. Governments confident in their legitimacy do not need to fear awkward questions, investigative reporting or newspapers which challenge the official narrative. Those which seek to control every aspect of public life, however, understand that an independent press represents a threat to their authority.
The announcement that Russia’s celebrated independent newspaper, Novaya Gazeta, is to cease operations is therefore about considerably more than the disappearance of another media organisation. It represents another deeply disturbing milestone in President Vladimir Putin’s systematic dismantling of what remains of independent public life in Russia.
For more than three decades, Novaya Gazeta stood as one of the most important remaining symbols of independent Russian journalism. Established in 1993, with financial support from former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, it emerged during a brief period of optimism following the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Its journalists investigated corruption, exposed abuses of power, documented human rights violations and challenged the increasingly authoritarian direction of Russian politics. It was never an entirely comfortable publication for the Kremlin. That, of course, was precisely its purpose.
Now, editor-in-chief Sergei Sokolov, a beacon of independent journalism in a country where professional courage increasingly carries extraordinary personal risks, has announced that the newspaper can no longer continue.
The editorial team has attributed its demise to sustained pressure from Russian authorities and security services. Sokolov has said that on November 9 the newspaper will switch off its servers, leave its historic premises and bring its operations to an end.
The timing and manner of the closure are particularly significant. This was not simply a newspaper struggling commercially or losing its readership. According to the newspaper, its ability to function had been progressively dismantled: its media registration was revoked, its websites blocked, its printing facilities taken away, its financial support disrupted and its journalists subjected to searches, detention and criminal investigations.
In September, the entire editorial team was designated as foreign agents. In October, Sokolov’s home was searched and he was questioned by investigators. Journalist Oleg Roldugin had already been arrested and placed under house arrest. The newspaper was also ordered to vacate its historic Moscow headquarters.
One does not have to agree with every editorial position taken by Novaya Gazeta to recognise the significance of what has happened. Indeed, that is the very essence of press freedom: journalists must be free to investigate, question and criticise without first obtaining the approval of those they are investigating.
Sergei Sokolov deserves particular recognition. In an increasingly hostile environment, he continued to lead a newsroom whose journalists understood that reporting the truth was not merely a professional obligation but a responsibility to Russian society. His determination to keep the publication operating, even after the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, deserves admiration.
He inherited a formidable legacy. Former editor Dmitry Muratov, who shared the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize for his defence of freedom of expression, had helped establish the newspaper’s reputation as a fearless investigative publication. Six of its journalists and contributors were murdered, including the internationally renowned investigative reporter Anna Politkovskaya, whose reporting exposed alleged abuses committed during Russia’s wars in Chechnya.
Their deaths remain a terrible indictment of the dangers confronting journalists who challenge powerful interests in Russia. Sokolov’s decision to keep working despite intimidation and the threat of prosecution is a reminder that journalism is sometimes an act of extraordinary personal courage.
Yet the significance of this closure extends far beyond one newspaper and its employees. It illustrates a familiar pattern in authoritarian politics: first discredit independent journalists, then restrict their funding, impose increasingly punitive regulations, criminalise inconvenient reporting and ultimately remove the institutions themselves.
The terminology is often carefully chosen. Journalists become foreign agents. Investigations become threats to national security. Criticism becomes disinformation. Opposition to government policy is portrayed as disloyalty to the nation. It is an approach familiar from the darkest chapters of European history.
An authoritarian regime’s fear of the truth
Putin’s Russia is hardly alone in understanding the political usefulness of controlling information. Throughout history, authoritarian governments have sought to monopolise the means by which citizens receive information.
The Soviet Union perfected the practice through censorship, state-controlled newspapers and the persecution of journalists who refused to conform. Independent thought was treated as a political offence, while propaganda was presented as patriotism.
There is an uncomfortable historical irony in the fact that Novaya Gazeta emerged from the relative openness of the post-Soviet period, only to be extinguished under a Russian president who has increasingly embraced the methods of the political system that preceded it.
The newspaper’s closure is also part of a much wider campaign. Since the invasion of Ukraine in 2022, independent Russian journalists have faced increasingly restrictive censorship legislation, prosecutions and intimidation. Many have fled abroad. Others have been imprisoned or forced into silence.
The Kremlin has not simply sought to influence the national conversation. It has sought to determine which conversations Russians are permitted to have.
A government which controls the media can attempt to control the historical record, the public understanding of military failures, the exposure of corruption and, ultimately, the political choices available to its citizens. Without independent reporting, the public is left increasingly dependent upon information supplied by the very institutions whose actions require scrutiny.
Europe’s responsibility
There should be no complacency in European capitals about what this means.
Freedom of expression is not an optional extra in a democratic society. Nor is it a privilege which governments can withdraw when reporting becomes politically inconvenient.
The European Union has repeatedly condemned Russia’s persecution of independent journalists. In 2022, the then EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell specifically highlighted the intimidation which had forced Novaya Gazeta to suspend its activities. The European Court of Human Rights also ruled against Russia in cases involving restrictions on the newspaper and other journalists.
Those commitments must now translate into practical support for independent Russian journalism operating in exile and for those journalists who continue to take extraordinary risks inside Russia. The continued existence of Novaya Gazeta Europe, established by journalists who left Russia following the invasion, is encouraging. But it cannot replace the work of an independent newsroom reporting from Moscow itself.
Europe must also remember that defending press freedom means defending the principle universally, including when journalists publish opinions with which European governments or their supporters strongly disagree.
The newspaper may disappear. Its legacy will not.
There is something particularly tragic about the departure of Novaya Gazeta. Its journalists continued working long after many would reasonably have concluded that the personal and professional risks had become intolerable.
Sergei Sokolov deserves to be remembered among those journalists who refused to surrender their professional principles when confronted by an increasingly powerful and intolerant state. His newspaper’s closure should not be interpreted as a victory for the Kremlin. It is, rather, an admission of how profoundly threatened an authoritarian government can feel by the simple act of independent reporting.
Putin may be able to close the offices, disable the servers and remove the newspaper’s name from Russia’s media landscape. He cannot, however, erase the investigations, the testimony, the historical record or the courage of those who produced them. The six journalists who lost their lives because of their work deserve to be remembered. So do those who remain in prison, those forced into exile and those who continue to report despite intimidation.
A government that fears its journalists has something to hide. A government that silences them has something to fear. The disappearance of Novaya Gazeta is not merely a Russian tragedy. It is a warning to every democracy that takes freedom of expression for granted.
And it is a reminder that when independent journalism dies, democracy is invariably among its victims.
