The closure followed preparations to leave the newspaper’s central Moscow office. France 24 reported that Novaya Gazeta was winding up its operations and preparing to quit the premises, while Deutsche Welle reported that Russian authorities had ordered the newspaper to vacate them.
Novaya Gazeta attributed the end of its Moscow operations to a campaign of state pressure that, in its account, made continued reporting impossible. The newspaper was also designated or classed as a foreign agent by Russian authorities, according to the supplied reports. The exact legal chronology of that designation and the premises order is not fully established in the available evidence.
The outlet was described by France 24 and Al Jazeera as an independent investigative newspaper and one of the few remaining Russian media organisations openly critical of the war in Ukraine and Kremlin policies. Its reporting was also associated with criticism of Vladimir Putin and his government, although the evidence does not establish that Putin personally ordered or directly caused the closure.
The shutdown removes the Moscow newsroom of a publication that had continued to report critically under mounting pressure, according to the supplied coverage. It is not clear from the reports whether any Novaya Gazeta operations will continue outside Moscow, so the closure of the newsroom should not be treated as proof that every part of the organisation has ended.
The immediate development is therefore clear: Novaya Gazeta’s Moscow newsroom has closed after its final editorial meeting, and the newspaper has linked that outcome to state pressure. The available reporting leaves open both the scope of any activity outside Moscow and the complete legal sequence behind the foreign-agent designation and order concerning the premises.