Grigory Yavlinsky’s website, 30.10.2026

The destruction of Novaya Gazeta is a blow to Russia’s future and a personal pain for me.

The liquidation of a newspaper whose editorial team loved and respected our country and sincerely told the truth about it, as best they could, for more than 33 years is not only the destruction of freedom of speech. In the 21st century, it is also yet another step towards a serious crisis with grave consequences.

Forbidding people to call things by their proper names, taking away the newspaper’s licence and printing house, pressuring and persecuting its journalists, starting with Dmitry Muratov, a Nobel laureate, an outstanding figure recognised all over the world and a member of Yabloko, who has been forced into the ranks of “foreign agents”, and depriving the newspaper of the opportunity to receive donations from its readers: all this destroys not only Russian journalism as such, but also Russia’s intellectual potential.

Novaya Gazeta and its journalists defended the most important values: human life and freedom. They stood up to lies, propaganda and manipulation. They preserved the memory of the victims of political repression. They seriously supported and defended today’s political prisoners.

For all this, six of Novaya Gazeta’s journalists, including my fellow party member and member of the Russian parliament Yuri Shchekochikhin, paid with their lives.

And for this, Novaya Gazeta is now paying with its very existence.

A state that declares dissent unacceptable and even criminal, and that turns its back on political truth, deprives itself of a positive historical future.

The repressive bodies that take such decisions do not understand the real prospects of our country and our state.

But a newspaper like Novaya Gazeta is not just an office, or even a licence, that can be taken away. It is a set of values and beliefs, a philosophy of modern life and of the future. This newspaper is its people: its journalists, editors and managers. It is Nobel Peace Prize laureate Dmitry Muratov.

I express my deepest solidarity with them and my support. I am sure they will find a way to keep speaking and writing.

Thank you, Novaya Gazeta, for everything you have done, and for everything you will still do.

Grigory Yavlinsky,

Chairman of the Federal Political Committee of Yabloko

Source: https://www.yavlinsky.ru/article/unichtozhenie-novoj-gazety-udar-po-budushhemu-rossii/