MOSCOW, April 9 (Reuters) - Independent Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta said on Thursday that masked security service agents were searching its Moscow office as part of an unspecified investigation.
In a statement on Telegram, the newspaper said it did not know the reason for the operation, and that its lawyers were not being allowed into the building.
State news agency RIA quoted law enforcement officials as saying that the search was linked to an investigation into the illegal use of personal data. Russia has tightened its censorship laws and increased pressure on independent media since it launched its war in Ukraine in 2022.
In a separate development on Thursday, the Supreme Court ruled that Russia's leading human rights group, Memorial, was an extremist movement, a move that paves the way for prosecutions of anyone who supports it, donates to it or shares its materials.
Novaya Gazeta is one of Russia's best-known investigative news outlets. Its editor-in-chief Dmitry Muratov was co-winner of the 2021 Nobel peace prize, and dedicated the award to six of his paper's journalists who were murdered for their work.
Muratov was designated in 2023 as a "foreign agent", a label that the authorities apply to individuals and organisations they deem to be conducting anti-Russian activity with support from abroad.
(Reporting by Reuters, writing by Mark TrevelyanEditing by Andrew Osborn)
