‘Killed Us’: Putin-Era Crackdown Forces Russia’s Leading Independent Newspaper to Shut

The building where independent Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta has an office.

Russia's leading independent newspaper, Novaya Gazeta, is set to close on 9 November after decades of reporting on corruption, political repression and the country's wars, its journalists have announced. The newspaper's staff said on Friday that they had exhausted all options to keep the publication running, blaming the Russian authorities for its impending closure.

"They killed us," the journalists said in a statement.

Dmitri Muratov, the newspaper's co-founder and 2021 Nobel Peace Prize laureate, also accused the government of deliberately destroying the outlet. "First they jailed an employee, then declared the newspaper a foreign agent, and then designated another 100 people as individuals affiliated with a foreign agent," Muratov, 65, said in an interview.

He added that authorities had raided the editor-in-chief's home and forced the newspaper out of its offices.

"Then they kicked us out of our building and took away our means of existence," he said. "We no longer have a home or money."

Muratov said the newspaper's closure was not a voluntary decision but the result of a campaign to destroy an independent voice that opposed repression and dictatorship.

The journalists said Novaya Gazeta was losing…

Original source: https://www.timesnownews.com/latest-news