By The Russian prosecutor general’s office on Wednesday declared The Moscow Times, an online newspaper popular among Russia’s expatriate community, an “undesirable organization.” This designation comes amidst a broader crackdown on critical news media and opposition figures. As a result, The Moscow Times must cease all operations within Russia and any Russian cooperating with the paper faces up to five years in prison.
This measure is even stricter than the “foreign agent” designation applied to the news outlet in November, which imposes increased financial scrutiny and mandates the prominent display of a notice of being labeled a foreign agent on all public material.
The Moscow Times had already moved its editorial operations out of Russia in 2022, following the enactment of a law imposing severe penalties for material deemed to discredit the Russian military and its war in Ukraine.
Publishing both in English and Russian, the newspaper’s Russian-language site was blocked in Russia several months after the Ukraine war began.
In an editorial note on the decision, the newspaper stated, “The labeling of The Moscow Times as ‘undesirable’ is the latest of many efforts to suppress our reporting on the truth in Russia and its war in Ukraine. This designation will make it even more difficult for us to do our jobs, putting reporters and fixers inside Russia at risk of criminal prosecution and making sources even more reluctant to speak to us. We refuse to give in to this pressure. We refuse to be silenced.”
The Moscow Times began in 1992 as a daily print paper distributed for free in embassies, hotels, and other locations popular with expatriates, whose presence in Russia surged following the collapse of the Soviet Union. It later reduced its print operations, shifting to an online-only format in 2017.
