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Flowers in front of the house of the shot »Novaya Gazeta« journalist Anna Politkovskaya (archive picture from 2006)
Photo: A2800 epa Kochetkov / dpa
The Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta is known for its critical stance on the Kremlin.
Now, according to the newspaper, a "chemical attack" has been carried out on the editorial building.
The opposition medium wrote on its homepage of a "persistent, pungent chemical smell" in its premises in the capital Moscow.
Accordingly, representatives from civil protection, the Ministry of the Interior and the domestic secret service FSB were on site for investigations.
At first it was unclear what substance it was.
The smell reminded newspaper employees of a gas attack by strangers on the house and car of journalist Julia Latynina in 2017, it said.
Latynina fled abroad a little later.
Employees suffering from allergies have been brought to safety, said editor-in-chief Dmitry Muratov.
Otherwise, the work will continue.
Attacks over and over again
The investigative newspaper Novaya Gazeta is one of the most important independent media in Russia.
Journalists from the Novaya Gazeta have repeatedly fallen victim to attacks in the past.
In 2006, the case of the reporter Anna Politkovskaya, who was shot in her home in Moscow, caused a sensation.
After lengthy investigations, several men from the North Caucasus Republic of Chechnya were convicted in 2014.
Politkovskaya's family and ex-colleagues suspect a political motive and demand a search for the backers.
Last year, the authoritarian Chechen republic head Ramzan Kadyrov openly threatened the newspaper because of its critical reporting on the corona crisis.
The new attack on the newspaper Novaya Gazeta took place on the day on which three non-governmental organizations filed criminal charges against the Russian mercenary group Wagner in Moscow.
Revelations about the Wagner organization
The criminal complaint concerns the murder of a prisoner in Syria in 2017, for which mercenaries from the Wagner organization were held responsible.
The criminal complaint is based on revelations by the "Novaya Gazeta", explained Muratov.
A video published by the newspaper shows men striking a man with a hammer, dismembering him, and finally setting him on fire.
On Monday the Novaya Gazeta published a report on the attacks that occurred in Chechnya.
Intimidation, attacks and assassinations have been repeated since the newspaper was founded in 1993.
In 2018, the head of a decapitated goat was sent to the newspaper.
The "Novaya Gazeta" is owned by the editorial staff, the businessman Alexander Lebedow and the former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev.
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