Putin transfers control over printing presses to Moscow officials. (The assets had been promised to Nobel Peace Prize laureate Dmitry Muratov.)

Vladimir Putin has transferred “temporary management” of the Prime Print chain to Moscow’s city government, completing the Kremlin’s seizure of assets owned by the Norwegian company Amedia. 

In April 2022, in the early aftermath of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Amedia announced its departure from the Russian market and said it would give complete control over four of its printing presses to Dmitry Muratov, the editor-in-chief of Novaya Gazeta and a Nobel Peace Prize laureate. (Muratov’s newspaper was one of Amedia’s clients in Russia.) In September 2023, Russia’s federal authorities suddenly confiscated the printing house and transferred it to the Federal Agency for State Property Management.

A representative for Novaya Gazeta told The Insider that the newspaper planned to sell the printing presses back to their founders at a discount with payment in five-year installments. “But we can no longer be responsible for this wonderful asset,” said the newspaper’s representative.