Akademik

   Newspaper. Founded in 1993, Novaya Gazeta is a Russian daily newspaper, and is famous at home and abroad for its critical coverage of Russian political and social affairs. The name of the newspaper in Russian means “A New Newspaper.” It is published three times a week (Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays) in Moscow, and is available in some Russian regions and foreign countries. The online version of the newspaper is published at www .novayagazeta.ru/. The newspaper is owned by billionaire Aleksandr Lebedev and former Soviet premier Mikhail Gorbachev; the latter used the money from his 1990 Nobel Peace Prize to establish the publication. Dmitry Muratov is the chief editor. In 2009, the circulation of the newspaper was 171,000 copies. Because of its critical stance and focus on corruption and the violation of human rights, the newspaper has been called “the last truly independent national newspaper in Russia.” Four Novaya Gazeta journalists were murdered between 2001 and 2009, including Anna Politkovskaya, Yury Schekhochikhin, Stanislav Markelov, and Anastasiya Baburova. The newspaper was involved in a series of scandals: in 2004, it accused Sergey Kiriyenko of embezzling $8 billion during the ruble crisis when he was the prime minister; it was later discovered that the accusations were based on a prank posted on the Internet. When this was revealed, Kiriyenko sued the newspaper for libel and won the case.

   See also Media.