Novaya Gazeta suspends publication until end of special operation in Ukraine

MOSCOW. March 28 (Interfax) - Novaya Gazeta is suspending its operations over two written warnings issued by Russia's telecoms watchdog Roskomnadzor, the media outlet's press secretary Nadezhda Prusenkova told Interfax.

"We are suspending our operations," Prusenkova said, responding to a question as to what the media outlet is going to do in regard of the two warnings issued by Roskomnadzor.

The media outlet said in its report Novaya Gazeta is suspending the publication of the paper online and on paper "until the end of the special operation on the territory of Ukraine."

"We cannot continue working with two written warnings from Roskomnadzor," she said.

Prusenkova said the editorial board still does not know why exactly the first and second warnings were issued by the agency.

"We don' know why the first one [was issued]. We have not even received a copy of the first warning. Therefore, we don't know the wording, either. They again sent a message about a warning in the media, but they have not sent anything to us; they didn't give anything to us into our hands," Prusenkova said.

Novaya Gazeta had expected this to happen, the press secretary said.

"We expected that, but we hoped [it would wait] until the last moment," she said.

Roskomnadzor issued Novaya Gazeta a second warning about the inadmissibility of violations of the legislation earlier on Monday.

"On March 28, Roskomnadzor issued the editorial board and the founder of the electronic periodical Novaya Gazeta a written warning about the inadmissibility of violations of the legislation of the Russian Federation. The warning was issued over a situation recorded by Roskomnadzor of the publication on the Novaya Gazeta site of materials mentioning an organization included in the register of foreign agent NGOs without proper marks," Roskomnadzor said in a report.

Roskomnadzor already issued a written warning to the editorial board and founder of Novaya Gazeta on March 22 for not having a mark when mentioning a foreign agent NGO.

The agency then said two written warnings can be grounds for a court decision on deprivation of the media of registration.