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By Andrew Osborn
MOSCOW, Oct 30 (Reuters) - The Russian independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta said on Friday that it was winding up its remaining operations after a campaign of state pressure in which a senior editor has been prosecuted and its financial support and premises have been taken away.
"We have been killed," the publication, set up with money from the Nobel Peace Prize of the last Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, said in a statement.
The paper halted its print edition inside Russia in 2022, but had continued to produce online content and operate from its office in central Moscow.
"On November 9, we will turn off the lights in the home where we have lived for 30 years, shut down our servers, and leave," it said. "The newspaper no longer exists. The Russian authorities and the Russian security services have forced our editorial team to cease its operations."
NOVAYA GAZETA A THORN IN RUSSIAN AUTHORITIES' SIDE
There was no immediate comment from the authorities, which had designated the publication a "foreign agent".
But the Kremlin - which accuses foreign intelligence services of trying to stir up discontent inside Russian society - has said in the past that some censorship is necessary at a time when Russia is locked in what it describes as an existential struggle with the West over Ukraine.
The prominent war blogger Rybar offered a taste of how the publication is seen in some official circles, reposting a diatribe that accused Novaya Gazeta of systematically promoting an anti-Russian narrative and of relishing the difficulties faced by the Russian state.
Founded in 1993 in line with Gorbachev's vision of 'glasnost' or openness, Novaya Gazeta ("New Newspaper") became one of Russia's most influential newspapers and defenders of democracy with its investigations into corruption and critical coverage of Russian politics.
Dmitry Muratov, its co-founder and long-time editor-in-chief, shared the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize, dedicating it to six colleagues who had been killed because of their work, including the investigative journalist Anna Politkovskaya, who wrote about Moscow's wars in the restive Chechnya region.
PRESSURE FROM FALLOUT OF UKRAINE WAR
Like other media outlets not run by the state but critical of it, Novaya Gazeta came under increasing pressure after Russia launched its full-scale war in Ukraine in 2022. Sweeping censorship rules were introduced that mandated long jail terms for "discrediting" the Russian army or disseminating what the authorities deem to be fake news.
"Since the start of the 'special military operation' in Ukraine and the introduction of criminal charges for 'discrediting the Russian army', we cannot report on the most critical and tragic events of our time," the newspaper said. "Censorship applies to virtually every sphere of civic life."
Many of its own journalists and those from other outlets had fled Russia in 2022, it added. Some of its former employees began a separate Latvian-based print and online publication called Novaya Gazeta Europe, which the Moscow authorities designated an "undesirable organisation", effectively banning it within Russia. It will continue to operate.
Inside Russia, Novaya Gazeta noted that its website had been blocked, its print licence revoked and its presses seized, and that one of its editors, Oleg Roldugin, was under house arrest awaiting trial on allegations that he misused personal data, an offence that carries a prison term of up to 10 years.
Its offices in central Moscow - from which it is now being evicted - have also been searched by the authorities, and the home of Sergei Sokolov, its editor-in-chief, was also searched this month.
"We carried on as long as we could," Novaya Gazeta said in its farewell statement.
(Reporting by Reuters; Editing by Kevin Liffey)
