Novaya Gazeta has announced it is shutting down. We never thought we would have to write these words — and yet that’s the reality. The story of the most important independent news outlet in modern Russia has come to an end.

Novaya was a unique newspaper from its founding to its final day. No other newsroom has a record like this: an extraordinary body of investigative reporting and exceptional journalism, an impressive array of awards — including Dmitry Muratov’s Nobel Peace Prize — and a list of journalists who were murdered.

By every measure, it was the best media outlet in Russian history. In a testament to that distinction, Novaya Gazeta was the only major independent outlet that kept operating inside the country after 2022, in defiance of wartime censorship, dictatorship, and even the instinct for self-preservation.

We admire your loyalty to the profession. We thank you for everything. And we promise to continue your work for as long as we can. We also know that you are unbreakable and never give up. You’ll find a way, as you have so many times before.

That is why we refuse to say goodbye to you. Novaya Gazeta will not disappear.

Thank you.