‘This isn’t goodbye’: Novaya Gazeta’s staff walk out of its Moscow office for the last time

Novaya Gazeta EuropeNovember 9, 2026

The independent Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta shut down its Moscow newsroom on Monday, ending its work from its longtime office on Potapovsky Lane.

Editor-in-chief Sergey Sokolov said the paper’s Telegram channel would stay active until midnight and that a final video had been posted on its YouTube channel. He pushed back on the idea that the paper was gone for good.

“This isn’t goodbye. We will find a way. Because Novaya Gazeta isn’t pages or a website; it’s an idea. For the people who work here, it’s the purpose of their lives, and that can’t be killed. It can’t be shut down,” Sokolov said. “We will live on. And I’m sure that this country that has fallen into this terrible time will finally stir. As soon as the slightest first signs appear, Novaya Gazeta will come back to you, our readers and our colleagues.”

Sokolov led the paper’s last editorial meeting at the office, the news outlet SOTAvision reported. Dmitry Muratov, the paper’s former editor-in-chief, attended along with staff and representatives of other news organizations, including CNN and Reuters, according to the outlet Ostorozhno, Novosti.

Afterward, staff took down portraits of six journalists and contributors associated with the paper who were killed: Igor Domnikov, Yury Shchekochikhin, Anna Politkovskaya, Anastasia Baburova, Stanislav Markelov and Natalya Estemirova.

Reporters asked Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov to comment, telling him that “one way or another, the era of independent Russian media is ending.” He disputed this.

“It would be wrong to say that the era of independent Russian media is ending,” Peskov said. “Russian media are very diverse. They’re multimedia, they’re developing quickly, and they operate in conditions of fairly tough competition. Of course, from year to year some outlets cease to exist and new ones take their place. It’s an ordinary, ordinary rotation process.”