Russia Shuts Down Last Independent Newspaper

Russia's last independent newspaper stops operations November 9, and nobody on staff is calling it a retirement party. Novaya Gazeta opened in 1993 with money from Mikhail Gorbachev's Nobel Peace Prize, and a Nobel buys a lot of newsprint but it doesn't buy a lease. Editor Sergei Sokolov blames Russian authorities and security services for forcing the closure. Staff got evicted from their Moscow newsroom and the reader donation system got switched off, which is about as subtle as a bank calling your note and asking why you're short. Six reporters have been killed since the paper started, and I won't joke about that. CBS notes it leaves no major independent newspaper in Russia. Moscow can call that a quiet news week.

“We were killed.”Sergei Sokolov, editor in chief, via Washington Examiner