The Internet publication "Public Post" was closed only because the project was unprofitable, its CEO Alexey Gorshkov told Lenta.ru. He suggested leaving the journalists' statements that the portal was closed for political reasons on the conscience of those who made them.

The management of "Public Post" was going to make the project self-sufficient in 3-4 years. Despite a "good start" during the surge of socio-political activity in the fall of 2011 and despite reaching the level of 40,000-50,000 users per day by mid-2012, the popularity of the project began to decline. By the end of 2012, "Public Post" had not surpassed the planned figure of 100,000 daily visitors. Therefore, it was decided to close the project, which was done on July 1. The owners of the publication decided that the website should also be closed. Gorshkov called this logical, especially since there was neither money nor anyone willing to support it: "When you close a factory, it is logical that you will no longer let anyone in there."

On July 4, former editor of Public Post Natalia Konradova stated on Facebook, citing unconfirmed third-hand information, that the portal was closed because it published materials critical of President Putin. Allegedly, the printout "landed on the desk" of the president and the co-founder of the project, Sberbank, chose to close the portal. Acting editor-in-chief of the project Nikolai Klimenyuk stated in an interview with Radio Liberty that the business plan, designed for three years, was implemented for the first year and a half, and then "difficulties of a political nature" arose. According to him, "direct pressure began to be exerted" on Public Post "by the hands of Interfax", while colleagues from the agency did not directly engage in censorship, but offered compromises. "If it were a completely different resource, completely loyal, pro-government, etc., it might not have been closed. On the other hand, by and large, none of the founders needed him; on the contrary, he was a big hindrance,” he said.

Klimenyuk added that he asked to transfer the rights to the archive and the domain name to the editorial board of the project and was ready to personally pay for the hosting costs, but the site was still closed.

"Public Post" was launched in November 2011 as a joint project of Interfax, Ekho Moskvy editor-in-chief Alexey Venediktov and Sberbank. Initially, the publication positioned itself as a platform for blogs, where bloggers' posts would be balanced by the work of professional journalists; gradually, the share of professional reports, interviews and other publications increased.

The CEO of Public Post named the only reason for the publication's closure