«Novaya Gazeta» ceased to cooperate with Agentura.Ru

20.11.08 Leadership of Novaya Gazeta decided to cease the cooperation with Agentura.Ru. On November 13, the chief of personnel department of “Novaya gazeta” informed Soldatov that he was being dropped from the paper’s payroll and that Irina Borogan’s contract was not being renewed, and they dropped a link to the site from their page. The chief of personnel department said that it was taking this step as part of broader cost-cutting moves.

Agentura.Ru has been cooperating with Novaya Gazeta since January 2006 and it included the preparation of the articles and investigations on the subject of Security Services and terrorism issues. We were invited to join Novaya Gazeta specifically to cover this subject.

We have not a clear understanding why “Novaya gazeta” decided so suddenly to end all cooperation with the project; all information came only from the personnel department, no explanation insued from the editor.

Thus, Novaya gazeta, one of the few independent publications in the country in fact is ceasing to cover the special services and publish investigations on them.

Both the suddenness and the form in which the separation happened gives reason to suppose that it was taken not for purely economic reasons. Maybe some of our recent stories – including ones on the intelligence consequences of the Georgian war, FSB's involvement in the murder of Politkovskaya, and the FSB’s cooperation with Chinese and Kazakhstan intelligence services – have been a more significant factor.

Agentura.Ru

See also

List of publications prepared by Agentura.Ru and published in Novaya Gazeta (in Russian)

http://www.agentura.ru/english/press/about/novayastop/