On 12 January 2023, Moscow’s Tagansky district court informed it had received an administrative case against Novaya Gazeta for “discreditation” of the Russian Armed Forces. If found guilty, the Russian independent newspaper headed by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Dmitry Muratov could be fined up to 500,000 rubles according to article 20.3.3.1 of the Russian code of administrative violations.
A representative of Novaya Gazeta said that the accusation was formulated for an article about a Russian anti-LGBT Orthodox priest supporting Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. However, article author Tatyana Britskaya seemingly respected Moscow’s war-related media legislation, which forbids the use of the term “war” to qualify the invasion (journalists are expected to instead call the events a “special military operation”).
Novaya Gazeta was previously fined 400,000 rubles in September for “discrediting” the Russian army. According to deputy Editor-in-Chief Sergey Sokolov, the article for which the newspaper was fined at that time did not even refer to the Russian Armed Forces.
UPDATE: On 18 January, the Moscow Tagansky District court fined Novaya Gazeta 500,000 rubles. The media’s representatives said they would appeal the decision.