MOSCOW: Senior editors at Russia's leading business newspaper quit Monday in protest against what they say is censorship under new ownership, as a months-long dispute between journalists and management came to a head.

Vedomosti is one of the last major independent newspapers in Russia, where journalists are increasingly squeezed by curbs on press freedoms and pressure from the Kremlin.

Kremlin critics said the exodus of top editors likely sounded the death knell for Vedomosti in its current incarnation. "All five deputy editors at Vedomosti are leaving the newspaper in protest over the appointment of Andrei Shmarov as editor-in-chief," the newspaper said.

Boris Safronov, one of the editors who resigned, told AFP he believed "the old Vedomosti will soon be no more".

Launched in 1999, Vedomosti was co-founded and co-owned by Dutch entrepreneur Derk Sauer's Independent Media, the London-based Financial Times and US business daily, The Wall Street Journal.

Like the Financial Times, it is published on salmon-coloured paper. The paper has changed hands several times since its first print run, as lawmakers introduced legislation limiting foreign ownership of Russian media.

In March, its reporters and editors were shaken by an announcement from then-owner Demyan Kudryavtsev that he planned to sell the newspaper. Shmarov, 65, was appointed acting editor-in-chief the same month, before the sale was finalised.