At the Moscow offices of newspaper Novaya Gazeta, the corridors are silent.
There is an overwhelming sense of emptiness.
“There is no newspaper anymore,” former chief editor Dmitry Muratov tells me in an exclusive interview, published on the BBC News YouTube channel.
Mr Muratov co-founded Novaya Gazeta more than 30 years ago. It became the flagship for hard-hitting independent journalism in Russia, shining a light on human rights abuses and high-level corruption.
In 2021 Mr Muratov was joint winner of the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts “to safeguard freedom of expression.” The Nobel Committee noted that “six of [Novaya Gazeta’s] journalists have been killed, including Anna Politkovskaya who wrote revealing articles on the war in Chechnya.”
Putin issued a decree and the newspaper’s printing presses were nationalised,” Mr Muratov explains. “Its registration was revoked.”
