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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