Berliner Tageszeitung - Novaya Gazeta closure part of Russia's 'giant military campaign': Muratov to AFP

The paper, whose closure was announced Friday, was "killed" because as "we are staunch opponents of war in any form and we represent a segment that they feel must be eliminated," the Nobel Peace Prize winner said in an interview.

Novaya Gazeta had been one of the last outlets to openly criticise Russia's offensive against its western neighbour since 2022.

Since then, the newspaper, long considered a bastion of independent journalism, has seen its media license revoked, journalists and editors questioned, detained, and their homes searched.

It was also branded a "foreign agent" -- a label reminiscent of Soviet-era repression used to stifle dissent.

Closing the paper "was not our decision", Muratov told AFP as the team packed up its editorial office.

"The decision was made about us: to destroy Novaya Gazeta," he said, adding that the paper had been "cut off from the financial systems used by our subscribers".

"We can no longer receive a single penny from those who subscribe to or read our work," he said.

In addition, the editorial team was "told that we are being evicted from the building we have occupied for 30 years".

- Constitution 'rendered void' -

Muratov, who was jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2021 for his work, said he would not share the team's plans, because that would simply provide Russian security services a target "to destroy".

The dismantling of Novaya Gazeta, he said, was part of a long process towards "dismantling (Russia's) constitution".

"In my view, we are part of a process currently unfolding across all of Russia."

Muratov pointed out that the constitution still on the books "prohibits censorship, yet all free, independent media in our country have been destroyed".

It also "states that human rights are paramount, but... we are witnessing repression", he said, adding that opposition parties were barred from participating in elections.

And, he said "the constitution stipulates that no one can be coerced into renouncing their beliefs, yet people here are being imprisoned for their beliefs".

"The constitution has effectively been rendered void".

Founded in 1993 after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Novaya Gazeta was one of Russia's most reputable and renowned organisations reporting and documenting human rights abuses.

Several Novaya Gazeta reporters have been murdered in killings widely seen as retribution for their work.

They include Anna Politkovskaya, who spent years investigating allegations of abuses by Russia's military during its campaigns in Chechnya.

She was found dead in her apartment block on President Vladimir Putin's birthday in October 2006.

Muratov himself had to formally step down from the post two years later after being declared a foreign agent.

U. Schmidt--BTZ