You're reading: Russian opposition paper claims Kremlin pressure

MOSCOW (AP) — Russia's leading investigative newspaper said Wednesday it is facing financial difficulties caused by official pressure on its main owner ahead of next month's presidential election.

The NovayaGazeta’s relentless criticism of the Kremlin and investigations into official corruption have put many of its journalists under fire. Four of its reporters have been killed since 2000, including Anna Politkovskaya, a fierce critic of the Kremlin and its policies in Chechnya who was gunned down in the elevator of her Moscow apartment building in October 2006. Others have been harassed and attacked.

Deputy editor Andrei Lipsky said Wednesday the Central Bank’s ongoing investigation of the National Reserve Bank has "paralyzed" its work, affecting the accounts of its customers, including the newspaper’s owner, Alexander Lebedev.

"But we’re working and will keep on working," Lipsky told The Associated Press. "We’ve already been in situations when we felt it was impossible to go on."

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin is expected to reclaim the presidency in the March 4 election, despite the large anti-government protest movement that was set off by alleged fraud in December’s parliamentary vote.

A libel judgment nearly shut NovayaGazeta down in 2002, and its website has been hacked at least twice.

Lebedev — who also owns two newspapers in Britain, the Independent and the Evening Standard — has called the bank probe in Russia part of authorities’ campaign to silence independent media ahead of March’s presidential election.

Last week, two independent broadcasters whose coverage of recent opposition rallies have angered the Kremlin reported a management shake up and an official probe they said were related to their critical coverage of Kremlin policies and the presidential election.

Founded in 1993, NovayaGazeta is published three times a week and has a circulation of about 200,000. Lebedev and former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev own a 49 percent stake, while the remaining shares are controlled by Novaya’s staffers.