Russia shuts down renowned magazine, paper

A Russian judge on Tuesday revoked the publishing license of an independent magazine, Novaya Rasskaz-Gazeta, a day after the license of its affiliated newspaper, Novaya Gazeta, was also revoked. Russia’s media regulator said the magazine did not submit its paperwork, called a newsroom charter, on time. The paper is one of the country’s only investigative newspapers and has been critical of the Kremlin for years. It has not covered the war in Ukraine but launched a paper in Europe that criticized the invasion. 

What has the paper said about it? Dmitry Muratov, the Nobel Peace Prize-winning editor-in-chief of the newspaper, said the ruling had no legal basis. Russia enacted new media laws when it invaded Ukraine, and Muratov said the shutdown is part of a “purge” of Russian media. He promised to contest the ruling. The late Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev funded the start of the paper under Muratov in 1993. Muratov said the only reason Russia is acting under the pretext of revoking the paper’s license, rather than shutting it down, is that it is an old paper with history. 

Dig deeper: Read Jill Nelson’s report in WORLD magazine on a new Iron Curtain in Russia.