The Russian independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta has announced it is closing, citing pressure from authorities who recently searched the home of its senior editor and earlier this year detained one of its journalists.

“Novaya Gazeta is ceasing to exist,” the editor-in-chief, Sergei Sokolov, said in a video statement published on YouTube on Friday. “The Russian authorities – the Russian special services – have forced the editorial team to end its work.”

Russia has introduced near-Soviet levels of censorship since sending troops to Ukraine, pushing the vast majority of independent journalists into exile. Novaya Gazeta, a bastion of independent journalism in Russia, is classed by Moscow as a “foreign agent”, a label used to stifle dissent.

Sokolov said: “Novaya Gazeta has been killed … On November 9 we will turn off the lights in our home, where we have lived for 30 years. We will shut down the servers and leave.”

Sergei Sokolov, the Novaya Gazeta editor-in-chief.…