Russia has added respected journalist and Nobel prize co-recipient Dmitry Muratov to its list of foreign agents, a label authorities commonly use to stifle critics. The move targeting the editor of Russia’s top independent publication, Novaya Gazeta, is part of a wider crackdown on respected civil society institutions that has accelerated with Moscow’s assault on Ukraine. Muratov “used foreign platforms to disseminate opinions aimed at forming a negative attitude towards the foreign and domestic policy of the Russian Federation”, Russia’s justice ministry said to justify the decision. The ministry also accused Muratov of creating and distributing content from other foreign agents.
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In 2021, when Muratov co-received the Nobel peace prize, he dedicated the award to Novaya Gazeta’s “fallen” journalists who “gave up their lives for their profession”. Since 2000, Novaya Gazeta has seen six of its journalists and contributors killed, including investigative reporter Anna Politkovskaya, who was shot dead in Moscow on President Vladimir Putin’s birthday. Co-founded by former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev – another Nobel Peace laureate – in 1993, Novaya Gazeta is one of the few media outlets left in Russia voicing criticism of Putin.
