Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov calls the closure of independent Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta a ‘normal process of turnover’
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov called the closure of Novaya Gazeta a “normal process.”
Reporters asked Peskov to comment on the newspaper’s closure, reminding him that Nobel laureate Dmitry Muratov had said Novaya Gazeta had been killed. “Either way, the era of independent Russian media is coming to an end,” the questioner stated. All quotations in this article are from Vy Slushali.
Peskov replied that “it would be wrong to say that the era of independent Russian media is coming to an end.” “Of course, every year some media outlets close, and new ones take their place. It’s a normal, normal process of turnover,” he said.
Novaya Gazeta stopped publishing its print edition in 2022, after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. That same year, Moscow’s Basmanny District Court revoked its media license. In September 2026, Novaya Gazeta was designated a “foreign agent.” In late October, it was reported that the newspaper was being evicted from its office on Potapovsky Lane in central Moscow, where its journalists had worked for about 30 years. On November 9, the journalists left the office.
More on Novaya Gazeta
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As Novaya Gazeta, one of Russia’s best-known independent newspapers, is forced to close after 33 years, three former staffers look back on its legacy
‘They killed us’: Russian independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta announces its closure after decades of repression
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