Justice Ministry designates Novaya Gazeta as ‘foreign agent’

The ministry made the announcement Friday afternoon as part of its latest update to the official register of foreign agents. In a statement, it accused the newspaper of “spreading false information about decisions taken by Russian public authorities and their policies, as well as about the Russian electoral system”.

The authorities also cited the newspaper’s condemnation of the war in Ukraine, its contacts with individuals already designated as foreign agents, and its publication of material produced by them.

The Justice Ministry separately published a list of 111 people it says are involved in a “foreign-agent association”. The list includes several people who already hold foreign-agent status, among them Nobel Peace Prize laureate and former Novaya Gazeta editor-in-chief Dmitry Muratov, political scientist Nina Khrushcheva – the great-granddaughter of former Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev – and opposition politician Lev Shlosberg.

Shlosberg was sentenced in August to 11 years in prison over his anti-war position. The list also includes Valery Potashov, a journalist from Karelia who was forced to leave Russia in 2025 after his home and workplace were searched for a second time.

Other new additions to the foreign-agent register include the magazine Historical Expertise, poet and essayist Sergei Leibgard, Tatiana Tatarinova, a professor of bioinformatics at the University of La Verne in the United States, and writer, editor and journalist Felix Sandalov.

Novaya Gazeta published its first issue in 1993 and over more than three decades became known for investigative reporting and critical coverage of the Russian authorities. Its journalists have faced repeated threats, assaults and assassination attempts. Six employees of the newspaper have been killed.