The founder of an important independent publication, which was stubborn to commit “a crime in Putin's Russia”, died after a great accident

Derk Sauer, a Dutch journalist who founded The Moscow Times and became a prominent defender of the independent press in Russia, died on Thursday following a navigation accident last month, his family announced, according to AFP. He was 72 years old.

Sauer played an essential role in the survival of independent journalism in Russia after the invasion of Ukraine, started in 2022.

As the Kremlin tightened censorship during the war, he moved The Moscow Times to Amsterdam and supported other publications that relate from exile, such as TV Rain and Meduza.

The repression of freedom of expression was not a surprise for the publisher veteran, who had long warned the restriction of the freedom of the press in Russia.

In 2020, after Vedomosti, a Russian economic newspaper, was taken over by a pro-Kremlin media owner and the chief editors resigned because of what they described as censorship, Sauer told AFP: “It is tragic. It is the end of Vedomosti as we know it.”

He added that change is “a much bigger tragedy for Russia.”

Sauer co-founded Vedomosti in 1999, in an association with the Financial Times and The Wall Street Journal.

The newspaper has become one of the most respected in Russia, largely due to its editorial independence.

But Sauer was better known as The Moscow Times, which he launched in 1992, shortly after the fall of the Soviet Union.

This English publication was intended for EXPANS, but has won a wide audience due to its reports on Russian politics, business and society.

“In his last days, Derk asked me to thank every person who has contributed to the transformation of The Moscow Times into the remarkable publication that is today,” said his son, Pjot Sauer, in a statement published on Facebook.

“Of all the companies, MT (The Moscow Times, no) has always been his biggest passion.” Pjotr Sauer added.

Sauer also contributed to the launch of Independent Media in 1999, which introduced the Russian editions of Cosmopolitan, Playboy and other Western magazines.

He sold The Moscow Times in 2005, but bought it back in 2017 and relaunched as a digital publication, and then move it to the Netherlands.

Sauer had a challenging message after the Moscow authorities appointed The Moscow Times as a “unwanted organization” in July 2024, a decision by which the activity in Russia was forbidden. “Of course, we will continue to carry out our activity as usual: independent journalism. This is a crime in Putin's Russia,” he said, at that time, in a post on the social network X.

Born in Amsterdam in 1952, Sauer was active in his hard left policy and became a journalist of Dutch newspapers and BBC.

He moved to Moscow in 1988 with his wife, Ellen Verbeek, and launched Moscow Magazine, one of the first glossy magazines for foreigners in the Soviet Union.

It remained a voice known in the Dutch media, writing articles and appearing regularly on national television.

According to the Dutch press, Sauer was injured in the back in a navigation accident in Greece in June.

After the initial treatment in Athens, he was brought to the Netherlands for additional medical care. He died in his holiday home in Zeeand, surrounded by family: his wife and three sons.