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President Vladimir Putin signed a law today curbing foreign ownership in Russian media, shrugging off criticism that the Kremlin is undermining the independent press in a swipe at global publishers and broadcasters.

The law requires Russian media with foreign owners to reduce non-Russian ownership to 20 percent by the end of 2016 after amending constituent documents by February of that year. The Vedomosti daily, published jointly by the Financial Times and the Wall Street Journal, and Axel Springer SEs Forbes Russia are the biggest independent media outlets in the country.

Since becoming president in 2000, Putin has brought major television stations under state control, pushing opposition discourse toward the Internet. This year, as geopolitical tensions flared over the conflict in Ukraine, Putin has tightened control over the World Wide Web and media.

This is another step toward closing Russia, isolating its information space and removing elites from criticism, Nikolay Petrov, a political science professor at the Higher School of Economics School in Moscow, said by phone. Vedomosti and Forbes have been the two remaining strongholds that could afford criticism toward Putins elite and havent agreed to compromise with the Kremlin.

The law also threatens to squeeze owners of entertainment television in Russia, including operators CTC Media Inc. (CTCM) and Walt Disney Co. (DIS), cable TV channels such as Discovery Communications Inc. (DISCA) and publishers of glossy magazines, including Sanoma OYJ (SAA1V), Hearst Corp. and Conde Nast.

Communications Minister Nikolay Nikiforov met with executives from media with foreign shareholders last week and agreed to form a working group on how to comply with the new law.

Hearst Shkulev Media, which publishes Elle and Maxim magazines in Russia, will need to amend its shareholder structure to bring its editorial group in compliance with the new requirements, co-owner Viktor Shkulev said. Still, the company is seeking to keep Hearsts participation in other business areas, he said.

CTC Media may need to either delist shares in the U.S. or buy back shares to comply with the law, Vedomosti reported Sept. 26. The company said last week its studying options to defend its shareholders and comply with the legislation at the same time. The Russian unit of Discovery declined to comment last week. Disneys local office couldnt be reached for comment today.

The law was drafted sloppily, Petrov said, adding that glossy magazines and entertainment TV channels will probably be exempted. The Kremlin was aiming to tighten control not over them, but over socio-political media.

To contact the reporter on this story: Ilya Khrennikov in Moscow at ikhrennikov@bloomberg.net

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Russia Threatens Foreign Media Ownership With New Rules

CTC Media Inc. (CTCM) plunged to a five-year low after President Vladimir Putin enacted a law capping foreign ownership in Russian media companies at 20 percent by the end of 2016.

The shares, which only trade in the U.S., slumped 2.8 percent to $4.86 in New York yesterday. CTC was listed on the Nasdaq stock exchange in 2006 and is the only publicly traded Russian television company. Stockholm-based Modern Times Group AB (MTGB) is the biggest shareholder, with about a 39 percent stake, while 36 percent is held by various U.S. and European investors, the company said in a statement last month.

CTC tumbled after Putin signed legislation lowering the threshold for foreign ownership in media companies from 50 percent. The tighter restriction comes as Russia increases its control over communications in the country amid a standoff with the U.S. and its allies over the Ukraine war. Putin has called the Internet a creation of U.S. spy agencies, and the government earlier this year banned anonymous public access to the Web.

It seems the worst is yet to come, Sergey Vasin, an analyst at OAO Gazprombank, said by phone from Moscow yesterday. The new law is signed into effect while slowing economic growth is already resulting in less revenue from ad sales. There is just no reason for any optimism.

Russias $2 trillion economy will expand 0.3 percent this year, the worst performance since it shrank in 2009, according to the median forecast of 38 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. Growth has been squelched by international sanctions linked to the war in Ukraine.

CTC Media said in a statement that it is considering options including a capital reorganization and divestments to comply with the lower foreign-ownership threshold.

The company might consider restricting shareholder voting exclusively to domestic investors while allowing foreign stakeholders to receive dividends and other financial benefits without being able to influence management, said Konstantin Belov, an analyst at UralSib Capital.

There is no easy option for CTC Media to comply with the law, Belov said by phone from Moscow.

CTC Media will develop a solution protecting all of our shareholders to the fullest extent, Yuliana Slashcheva, the companys chief executive officer, said by e-mail. We will inform the market appropriately as soon as decisions are taken.

The new law takes effect in 2016 and gives companies a year to comply.

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Russias CTC Media Drops as Putin Restricts Ownership

MOSCOW In a move that will significantly constrict Russias fast-shrinking space for independent reporting, Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday signed into law a measure that will curtail foreign ownership of media outlets in his country.

The decision extends the Kremlins control over some of Russias most prominent independent publications, a few of which have broken news critical of Putin and his allies at a time when tensions between Russia and the West are at their highest level since the Cold War.

The move comes as Russias powerful state-run media has labored round-the-clock to glorify Putin and denigrate groups perceived to be the nations enemies. Leaders of those outlets the sources of news for the vast majority of Russians are unapologetic and open about their efforts as propagandists, a term they use to describe themselves.

Even though Putin long ago consolidated his control over television and many print news outlets, there had been independent options for the smaller set of Russians who sought alternative voices for news, and the Internet was a particularly unregulated space. But over the past year, one news source after another has been blocked, closed or editorially redirected.

The bill quietly signed into law on Wednesday will limit foreign ownership of media assets to 20 percent by the beginning of 2017.

We understand very well that those who own information own the world, lawmaker Vadim Dengin, the author of the bill, said during a parliamentary debate before the law was approved. When foreigners come here to make money and then actively influence the media market and use it for their own benefit, at this moment, I want to say that I am ready to close down Russia and ensure its security.

Dengin, a member of the nationalist LDPR party, said a cold information war was being waged against Russia.

The law deals the sharpest blow to Russias most prominent independent daily newspaper, Vedomosti, which aspires to Western standards of journalism.

Vedomosti is co-owned by a tri-national consortium Dow Jones, the Financial Times Group and Sanoma, a Finnish media company and focuses on business reporting, a sensitive topic given Russias tanking economy and dim prospects for the future. The newspaper has chronicled the troubles of Russias most powerful companies as the economy has slowed and Western sanctions have taken hold.

Our politicians have developed a mania of control, said Tatiana Lysova, Vedomostis editor in chief. We do not report to the Russian authorities, so that is why we are a potential danger in their mind, a potential enemy.

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Russias Putin signs law extending Kremlins grip over media

Announced at the end of yesterday's big Nexus 6 launch, the Nexus Player is Google's new living room media box - it's answer to the Apple TV and other set-tops like the Roku 3.

The tech giants have long been battling for control of our living rooms, and it's surprising to some extent that one product has not yet emerged with a significant share of the market.

In the Nexus Player, then, Google thinks it's finally found a product in which it can smuggle itself into your living room, supplying Netflix streams to your TV along with Android games and more.

It's a busy market place that Google is tackling here, and recent history is littered with failed attempts from all kinds of companies. Media boxes were once the obsession of hard drive manufacturers like WD, now it's tech giants like Google and Apple.

Google, you'll remember, has already launched the Chromecast in this area, and has in the past failed in its attempts with Google TV.

"Nexus Player is a home media player for streaming Netflix and playing games on your TV"

Have you heard? The DVD player is dead. The Blu-ray player is dead too. Physical media in the living room is dead.... more or less. The Nexus Player is the latest candidate to stake a claim on this post-disc world.

It's a puck-shaped device that plugs into your TV via HDMI and it's small - measuring just 120x120x 20mm, it's dinkier than a DVD, though substantially thicker.

Forgoing any kind of physical media playback, it's designed exclusively to stream and download video and music from both the internet and your own home network. So it's a Netflix player then - right?

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In Depth: Nexus Player: Everything you need to know about the Android TV box

Vladimir Putin: signed amendments that were whisked through the Russian parliament last month without public debate. Photograph: AP/Kirill Kydryavtsev

Vladimir Putin signed a new Bill into law yesterday that bars foreign companies from owning more than 20 per cent of Russian media outlets.

Coming as the Kremlin wages an information war with the West over the Ukrainian crisis, the restrictions will hurt international investors and limit the influence of outside broadcasters and publishers in shaping Russian public opinion.

Amendments to Russias media law placing a 20 per cent cap on foreign ownership of television, radio print and online media were whisked through the Russian parliament last month without public debate. Existing legislation limits foreign ownership of media outlets to 50 per cent, but applies only to television and radio.

With the exception of a few independent publications, Russian media has covered the protests in Kiev that led to the overthrow of Ukraines president Viktor Yanukovich in a negative light and portrayed separatist fighters in east Ukraine as the victims of government aggression. Russian officials and commentators frequently accuse the West of encouraging an illegal power grab that ushered in the new, pro-European leadership in Ukraine.

Russia is obsessed with controlling what is said about the crisis in Ukraine and its role in the conflict, according to Human Rights Watch.

Millions of Russians would be denied the fundamental right to information from a source of their choice as the restrictions on foreign media came into force.

Foreign companies affected by the new legislation include Nasdaq-listed CTC Media, which owns and operates three Russian television channels and a number of digital media assets.

Publishers of glossy magazines, including Germanys Axel Springer, the US Hearst Corporation, and Conde Nast, whose Russian-language editions of Vogue, GQ and Tatler are hugely popular, will also be forced to reduce their holdings in Russia.

Another victim will be Vedomosti, Russias leading business daily, which is part-owned by the Wall Street Journal and the Financial Times. A wave of anti-western sentiment sweeping Russia will allow the Kremlin to consolidate its grip on the media while punishing the US and European Union for imposing economic sanctions in the wake of the Ukraine crisis.

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Putin signs law restricting foreign ownership of media