In Moscow, a lonely voice of critical reporting

MOSCOW -- One of the computers on reporter Vyacheslav Izmailov's desk is more than a decade old, an antique by high-tech standards. But he refuses to part with the machine: Mikhail S. Gorbachev paid for it with his 1990 Nobel Peace Prize money.

"It is pretty outdated and not of much practical use anymore, but I will never throw it away," said Izmailov, the military analyst for the fiercely independent Novaya Gazeta newspaper. "It is a little monument to freedom of speech and freedom of the press. And of course to Mikhail Gorbachev."

When Novaya Gazeta, or "New Newspaper," was launched in 1993 with a little help from the last Soviet leader, it soon won respect for its coverage of subjects such as corruption and the misdeeds of Russian forces in war-torn Chechnya. It also made powerful enemies.

Today, as Russian media increasingly come under the influence of the Kremlin, the thrice-weekly Novaya Gazeta, which claims circulation of nearly 700,000, stands out ever more as a lonely bastion of independent critical reporting.

"Novaya Gazeta is trying to tell people the real truth about the situation in the country and about the ways this country is managed by the people sitting in the Kremlin," said Lyudmila Alexeyeva, chairwoman of the Moscow Helsinki Group, a prominent human-rights organization. "I trust them like no other newspaper in Russia."

Gorbachev said recently that he helped the newspaper get started because he knew and respected the journalists who launched it. He is still the publication's patron saint. Last year he teamed with billionaire politician Alexander Lebedev in a multimillion-dollar deal to rescue the newspaper in exchange for a minority stock interest.

In a recent report, the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists described Russia as one of the 10 countries that had seen the greatest deterioration in media freedoms during the past few years. As an example, it cited a new law that defines illegal "extremism" to include "public slander toward figures fulfilling state duties."

Although Novaya Gazeta's heart lies with critics of President Vladimir V. Putin, it is willing to blast what its writers see as failures of opposition politicians as well, particularly targeting what it perceives to be errors committed in the effort to build greater democracy in Russia.

"We are not an 'opposition newspaper,' " deputy editor Sergei Sokolov said. "It so happens that our moral principles and our convictions are in opposition to the current authorities. But this is not a political position. This is a moral position."

"We say: 'Guys, maybe you're right doing those reforms. But why are you lying to us? Why are you stealing?' "

Putin, whom critics blame for tightening control over Russian media, and Lebedev, whose money provides for the survival of the newspaper most consistently critical of top authorities, are former KGB foreign intelligence agents.

Lebedev argues that his KGB past in no way conflicts with his promotion of democratic values, and that KGB foreign intelligence made a particularly great contribution to the Soviet Union's shift to reform and openness -- "perestroika" and "glasnost" -- during the Gorbachev years.

"In a sense I've got nothing to feel remorse for, because every country has to have good foreign intelligence, so that even the old guard in the Politburo are properly informed," he said.

"So I'm laughingly talking to Gorbachev, and I received permission to say, 'It was the Russian foreign intelligence that was the number one force in bringing up perestroika, rather than Gorbachev. He's in the second place.' And he said, 'OK, you can tell it.' "

A member of the pro-Kremlin United Russia party, Lebedev generally is seen as something of a maverick -- relatively independent and democratically minded. He has said he plans to run for re election to his seat in the lower house of Parliament on the ticket of another recently created pro-Kremlin party, Fair Russia.

Lebedev and Gorbachev generally distance themselves from the newspaper's criticism of Putin, saying that what they are supporting is democracy, not an anti-Kremlin line.

Speaking at a recent news conference called mainly to discuss an election-monitoring organization that he and Lebedev also support, Gorbachev said the two men were determined to see the newspaper survive.

The newspaper drew global attention last year when its star reporter on Chechnya, Anna Politkovskaya, was gunned down in her apartment building. The apparent contract killing remains unsolved. She was the third journalist at the newspaper to be killed in apparent connection with work or in suspicious circumstances.

"I almost never watch news on television because they never tell you the truth, or more precisely, the complete truth," said Sergei Golovanov, an interior designer who has been a loyal reader since the mid-1990s .