When I woke up this morning to the news that Novaya Gazeta is closing its doors, it felt like a personal blow. To me, Novaya’s office in a small grey building in central Moscow always felt like home.

The newsroom moved to Moscow almost three decades ago. I got to know its every nook and cranny, as I went there, in my capacity of a Moscow-based Human Rights Watch researcher, for meetings, celebrations, commemorations, or simply to swap stories with a friendly journalist over coffee or wine.

I was there on the night of Anna Politkovskaya’s murder in October 2006 and stood outside seven years later as her memorial plaque was affixed to the wall. I celebrated with the newsroom when editor-in-chief Dmitry Muratov won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2021 . For years, I worked alongside Novaya journalists in conflict zones. Together, we travelled to Chechnya, remote mountain villages in Dagestan, South Ossetia (Georgia), and Ukraine.…