Novaya Gazeta suspends publication in Russia over Ukraine war warnings

On 28 March 2022, the Russian independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta announced that it was suspending publication, both in print and online, until the end of what Russian authorities call the "special military operation" in Ukraine.

The decision followed a further warning from Roskomnadzor, Russia's state media and communications regulator. The warning concerned the paper's failure to label a material as produced by a "foreign agent", a status the authorities had applied to some organisations and people. Under the new wartime laws passed in early March 2022, coverage that contradicted official accounts of the war could lead to blocking and prosecution.

The paper's editor-in-chief, Dmitry Muratov, had shared the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize with Filipino journalist Maria Ressa. Novaya Gazeta, founded in 1993, was one of the last major critical outlets still working inside Russia, and several of its journalists had been killed over the years, including Anna Politkovskaya in 2006.

The suspension marked a turning point for independent media in Russia. Many staff later left the country and continued work through a new outlet, Novaya Gazeta Europe.