Russian Newspaper Run By Nobel Prize-Winning Editor Defies Putin Ban On War Reporting

Dmitry Muratov, editor-in-chief of Russian independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta, joins protesters carrying signs showing slain Russian human rights lawyer Stanislav Markelov (L) and Novaya Gazeta journalist Anastasia Baburova (R), who were both killed by an unknown assassin in Moscow, as well as a sign showing Anna Politkovskaya (C), another assassinated Novaya Gazeta journalist, during a demonstration in front of the Russian embassy on Jan. 21, 2009, in Berlin, Germany. (Sean Gallup/Getty Images)

The Novaya Gazeta investigative newspaper is defying Russian President Vladimir Putin after it asked its readers whether it should cease publication or continue amid threats from state media watchdog Roskomnadzor. It had ordered the publication to stop calling the fight in Ukraine a “war.”

“We continue to call war war,” Dmitry Muratov, Novaya Gazeta’s editor-in-chief, told The New Yorker. “We are waiting for the consequences.”