Novaya Gazeta - Historical Background

Historical Background

Novaya Gazeta is known for being critical of Russian government policy. Journalist Anna Politkovskaya, who was critical of Russia's actions in Chechnya, wrote for Novaya Gazeta until her assassination on October 7, 2006. The journalist wrote in an essay that the editors received:

Visitors every day in our editorial office who have nowhere else to bring their troubles, because the Kremlin finds their stories off-message, so that the only place they can be aired is in our newspaper, Novaya Gazeta.

Yury Shchekochikhin, a renowned journalist and deputy in the State Duma, had also worked for the newspaper as an investigative journalist and had been a deputy Editor-in-Chief of it until he died after a mysterious and severe allergy on July 3, 2003. Some of his contributions published in Novaya Gazeta were related to the investigation of the Three Whales Corruption Scandal.

Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev and State Duma Deputy Alexander Lebedev own 49% of the newspaper and the paper's staff controls the remaining 51% of shares. Gorbachev has long been a friend of the paper. He used the money from his 1990 Nobel Peace Prize to help set up Novaya Gazeta in 1993 and purchase its first computers.

On 13 April 2009, the newspaper was granted the first-ever print interview in a Russian publication with President Dmitri Medvedev, discussing such issues as civil society and the social contract, transparency of public officials and Internet development.