On 5th September, a Moscow court granted a request by Russian state media regulator Roskomnadzor to revoke the newspaper’s print license. The newspaper said it would appeal the decision.

Novaya Gazeta stopped printing in Russia on 28th March, after receiving official warnings for allegedly failing to mark materials produced by so-called “foreign agents.” The court’s ruling would bar the newspaper from being able to resume printing in the future. Roskomnadzor had accused the publication of failing to provide documents related to a change of ownership in 2006.

Novaya Gazeta's editor-in-chief, Dmitry Muratov, who won the 2021 Nobel peace prize, said the ruling was “a political hit job, without the slightest legal basis”.

Some members of the paper’s staff fled Russia and launched a new outlet, Novaya Gazeta Europe, published from several cities in Europe.

JMWU office secretary Andrei Jvirblis said: "This court decision makes no sense since the editorial staff had itself suspended publication of the newspaper during the so-called "special operation on the territory of Ukraine". It is a symbolic act by which the Russian authorities distance themselves from glasnost and the values of democracy and freedom embodied by this newspaper. This will not prevent our colleagues at Novaya Gazeta from continuing to do their work, with or without a licence."

The IFJ and EFJ have condemned the "travesty of justice". They demanded that the withdrawal of the newspaper's licence be revoked.