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“We have been killed”: Novaya Gazeta, the last major independent newsroom still working from inside Russia, closes after losing its Moscow office and its reader donations in the same week

30 October 2026 at 16:12

novaya gazeta

Novaya Gazeta will turn off its servers and leave its office on Moscow's Potapovsky Lane on 9 November, ending more than 30 years of work, the editorial staff said in a statement published on 30 October. The paper will publish one final issue.

The closure removes what The Economist called Russia's "last free newspaper." Novaya Gazeta had repeatedly exposed evidence of Russia's aggression against Ukraine: in 2015, it published a memo that, it said, apparently reached Putin's administration in February 2014 with a plan to annex Crimea and eastern Ukraine, and in 2017 it published a witness account backing the identification of a Russian colonel linked to the downing of MH17. Some 1,500 journalists have left Russia since the full-scale invasion, and over 100 independent media projects now work from exile, according to a CEPA report. Novaya Gazeta kept working in Moscow through the war, until pressure rose sharply this year and, the paper says, left it with no office and no money.

The eviction and the donations cut off together

The eviction became public on 29 October, when The Insider reported a letter to readers from editor-in-chief Sergei Sokolov and journalist Irina Gordienko. The newsroom had worked in the Potapovsky Lane building for 29 years, according to The Insider, or 30, according to the paper. The letter said the paper had very little time to leave and had no new office. The reasons for the eviction and the position of the building's owner have not been made public.

According to the statement, the platform the paper used to collect reader donations was shut down at the same time as the eviction letter arrived. Banks cited internal corporate rules, but the editors called this a coordinated campaign and blamed the FSB, the Justice Ministry, and the Prosecutor's Office.

The museum of Anna Politkovskaya, set up in 2021 in her former office in the same building, will also close, according to The Insider. On 7 October, the 20th anniversary of her murder, the museum received the restored memorial plaque from the Moscow building where she was shot.

Murders, attacks, and a criminal case against an editor

The statement lists six colleagues killed for their work: Igor Domnikov, Yuri Shchekochikhin, Anna Politkovskaya, Stas Markelov, Anastasia Baburova, and Natalya Estemirova. It also recalls the attack on Nobel Peace Prize laureate Dmitry Muratov, who nearly lost his sight, and says no criminal case was opened. Columnist Elena Milashina was abducted and beaten in Chechnya in 2023.

Earlier this year, in April, security officers raided the newsroom for 13 hours, and Oleg Roldugin, whom the paper calls its managing editor, was detained in a criminal case over the alleged illegal use of personal data, The Insider reported. The paper says Roldugin was in effect taken hostage for working as a journalist and that his trial is coming. In mid-October, Sokolov's apartment was searched. In early September, the Justice Ministry added Novaya Gazeta to its "foreign agents" register, listing more than 100 journalists and contributors, according to the statement.

Nearly five years of shrinking room

Novaya Gazeta suspended publication in March 2022 after warnings from the media regulator Roskomnadzor. In September 2022, a Moscow court stripped the paper of its media license, Reuters reported. Then-editor-in-chief Dmitry Muratov called the ruling "a political hit job, without the slightest legal basis."

Meanwhile, staff who left Russia launched Novaya Gazeta Europe in Riga, according to RFE/RL.

Euromaidan Press has drawn on Novaya Gazeta's reporting, including its interview with Oleg Sentsov, and marked Politkovskaya's legacy in 2019.

UN Experts Warn of Systematic Destruction of Gaza’s Education System

30 October 2026 at 06:08
Destruction of schools, universities and cultural heritage in Gaza amid the Israeli offensive on Palestine.

The destruction of schools, universities and cultural institutions threatens Palestinian education, historical memory and future generations.


United Nations experts have warned that the systematic destruction of Gaza’s education system and the killing of Palestinian journalists are undermining Palestinian society’s ability to educate future generations, preserve its history and document events in the occupied territories.

RELATED: Israel Kills Four Palestinians in Gaza Despite Ceasefire

Speaking Thursday at a briefing organized by the UN Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People at the organization’s headquarters in New York, the experts condemned the destruction of educational institutions and the growing restrictions on press freedom across the occupied Palestinian territories.

Farida Shaheed, the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to education, described the devastation in Gaza as “scholasticide,” defined as the systematic and deliberate destruction of education. She reported that 98% of schools and all 13 universities in the territory had been destroyed.

The damage extends far beyond educational facilities. According to the experts, 13 libraries, 195 heritage sites, 227 mosques, at least three churches and Gaza’s central archives have also been destroyed. The archives held 150 years of collective memory, representing a significant loss of Palestinian historical records.

Gaza’s children are losing more than classrooms and textbooks. Three years of Israel’s genocide have disrupted their education, killed teachers and classmates, and left many struggling with hunger, trauma and the basic skills they need to learn.https://t.co/Fz7cmDzbzB

— The New Arab (@The_NewArab) October 25, 2026

The consequences for education are also evident in the occupied West Bank. Shaheed reported that 10 of the 48 schools in East Jerusalem were demolished in September. She also cited 224 security incidents during the first half of the year that affected 152 schools and 20,450 students.

The experts also raised alarm over the killing of Palestinian journalists and media workers, warning that the loss of those documenting events in Gaza has compounded the restrictions on freedom of expression.

Francesca Albanese, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, recalled that nearly 300 journalists and media workers had been killed in Gaza since October 2023, making the territory an increasingly deadly place for members of the press.

The most immoral army
will continue to slaughter innocent people

No matter which fugitive or potential war criminal leads Apartheid Israel.

They will.
Until or Unless WE THE PEOLE force it to stop.

Stop the Genocide now.
Together we can and we will. https://t.co/KoKmHMzWAw

— Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur oPt (@FranceskAlbs) October 29, 2026

Albanese warned that silencing witnesses not only allows crimes to be committed but also conceals them, allowing impunity to become part of the process.

The experts called on the international community to take immediate action by halting arms transfers, protecting journalists and sustaining humanitarian assistance through the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). They also warned that the ceasefire announced the previous year had failed to bring relief, with more than 1,500 Palestinians killed since it took effect.

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