Leading Russian independent newspaper shuts down after warnings over war in Ukraine

euronews.com:

One of the last independent news outlets in Russia has announced it's closing down.

Novaya Gazeta said in a statement that they'd had two warnings from Russian press watchdog Roskomnadzor, which put their operating license at risk, so they had decided to close down while the war in Ukraine is ongoing.

The move comes at a time when Russian authorities are stepping up their pressure against critical voices.

Novaya Gazeta's editor-in-chief Dmitry Muratov received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2021 for his work.

The paper says the warnings from Roskomnadzor are about being in breach of Russia's controversial "foreign agents" law.

Specifically, Novaya Gazeta was cited for not having specified an NGO mentioned in one of its articles was classed as a "foreign agent" by the Russian authorities, as required by law. The newspaper received the first warning on March 22, then a second on Monday.

Novaya Gazeta has published investigations into corruption and human rights violations in Russia for nearly 30 years. Several contributing journalists have been killed, including Anna Politkovskaya — whose assassination in October 2006 was linked to the Kremlin due to her investigative work on crimes committed in Chechnya.

Since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, Russia has cracked down on media at home, passing several laws imposing heavy prison sentences for spreading what the Kremlin considers to be false information about the war.

The "foreign agents" law is used against organisations critical of the Kremlin with the individuals labelled as such required to disclose it in their publications.

"There is no other way. For us, and I know for you, this is a terrible and painful decision. But we must protect each other," said Muratov, in a letter to the