These are the archives of The Russia Journal. Nearly 20,000 stories from print editions of the newspaper published 1998-2005 are available in web and PDF formats here. For browsing the html/text format on the web click Browse Archives , for PDF copies, click here.

A brief note about The Russia Journal: The Russia Journal had been published in Moscow since 1998 by Ajay Goyal. The newspaper started as a weekly publication in the aftermath of 1998 financial crisis and default. The publication was founded by Ajay Goyal. In the vacuum of news and reporting in post-1998 default and misreporting and flawed analyses preceeding it, The Russia Journal took the lead in revealing Russian risks and opportunities to the outside world. The readership grew fast with the circulation and advertising revenues making dramatic growth of nearly 900% a year. Ajay Goyal served at Chief Editor of the paper which was edited by Mark Najarian.

By the year 2000 the newspaper employed 80 staff and four supplements were launched. Lifestyle soon became a premier colour guide to Moscow. A weekly edition was launched in Washington DC and soon achieved sales and subscription of over 7,000 copies each week.

The independent analysis, opinions and investigative stories of the The Russia Journal opened up a new era in reporting from Russia. The depth of reports that were untainted by any bias or stereotype had hitherto been unknown from Russia.

The Russia Journal started publishing a daily newspaper in 2001 after the 9/11 terror attackes in the United States. It was the only paper in Moscow to rise to the occasion to meet the need of the hour and provide comprehensive coverage of the terrorist strikes in the United States to an anxious expat community. The daily edition of the newspaper set new standards in reporting quality.

The web site www.russiajournal.com has had over half million monthly users during these years.

From early days of its inception the newspaper took a unique approach in reporting from Russia by hiring reputed Russian analysts and reporters and created close working relationships between them and native English writers. The language and flair was native English but the reporting, facts and analyes from well established Russian reporters and commentators. This allowed for a rare insight into Russia and the lives of Russians. It meant a new standard in insightful and truthful reporting without the colour of biases or stereotypes from Russia. Economic, and political insights and expertise offered by Russia Journal was unique and it lead to newspaper spotting trends in political and economic life of the country and making predictions that nearly always turned out to be correct. This foresight set the newspaper in a class of its own because almost all predictions of Russia by foreign experts thus far had been wrong.

By 2002-03 the political climate in Russia was changing and President Vladimir Putin was responding to mass anger against the robber capitalism of oligarchs that had taken hold in 1990s. State treasury had been bled by oligarchs and massive amounts of capital were regularly being siphoned offshore. When Vladimir Putin acted against the rogues, The Russia Journal supported his bold and necessary stand. But it also found itself in a rather unique position. On one hand was a moral choice to stand by correctness of actions in faour of interest and indeed the survival of the masses and on the other, the leading advertisers, corporations and businesses owned by the oligarchs, facing brunt of Putin's actions -- tax demands and arrests -- that did not approve of the editorial line of this newspaper. What came naturally to The Russia Journal – to side by the correctness of a move to end the robber capitalism and grand larceny of a decade in Russia became its undoing eventually. The Journal's editorial line severely displeased the rogues and their bankers that controlled the levers of Russian economy. The Journal chose and stood for what the editors believed to be a righteous stance and it met with sharp reactions from these oligarchs and their business houses: a commercial blockade and then violent response.

Oligarchs controlled much of Russian media including the only other English language newspaper in the country. These oligarchs and their vast financial tentacles gave the competition an unfair advantage. Endless funding from oligarchs was made available to competing newspapers that carried propaganda for the oligarchs even as their banks, auditors, law firms and advisers curtailed advertisements in The Journal.

The results were catastrophic but not mortal. The newspaper could yet survive financially because of subscription and advertising revenues from small and medium companies that were independent of the oligarchs and state. But its survival was made more difficult by what came next.

2004 saw some security breaches in the company when hacker attack induced technical problems disrupted the newspaper. Then came frivolous lawsuits that used the corrupt courts to the hilt. Oligarchs were determined to silence independent voices exposing their skulduggery and crimes and Russia Journal was a nemesis of many of those oligarchs. Though Russia Journal never lost a law suit of many and never apologised for its writings, the cost to this young newspaper was enormous. Final straw were physical attacks on newspaper employees with burglaries, arson and death threats. A weakened Russia Journal could not longer sustain itself in the face of a commercial blockade and attacks by oligarchs.

The greatest irony of these circumstances has been that we never believed any threat against Russia Journal to have originated from the official quarters. It has been fashionable in the western media to blame President Putin for every ill and evil in the past years in Russia but we believe quite to the contrary. Some of the harshest critic of Vladimir Putin have been columnists for The Russia Journal and yet almost all of newspaper's troubles originated because of its investigative business journalism and political views against the robber capitalists and their cheerleaders.

The Journal, weakened by numerous attacks started losing its voice in 2005.

It published its last print edition in December 2005 and continued publishing on the web till 2007.

The Russia Journal always was and remained an independent publication, having no affiliation to any government, mega-corporation, think tank or interest group. In its seven year tenure it was never influenced by threat or favor. The owner preferred to shut it down than compromise on the editorial integrity.

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