Lights go out at Russia’s Novaya Gazeta, after years of defiant reporting

Russian investigative newspaper Novaya Gazeta winds up its operations and quits its central Moscow office, bowing to what it says was a campaign of state pressure that had made it impossible to carry on reporting.

Its co-founder Dmitry Muratov, addressing journalists who gathered to witness the newspaper’s closure, issues an impassioned plea for free speech and human rights in wartime Russia.

“Those in our country who advocate for peace have been denied the right to read what they choose, as we see happening today,” he says. “We are currently at a point where the section of the Russian constitution that guarantees political and civil rights has effectively ceased to function.”

The closure marks the end of one of Russia’s most influential independent news outlets.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov says it is part of a “rotational process” in a fiercely competitive media environment.