The share of you are Russian

The Kremlin supported the initiative of State Duma deputies to limit the participation of foreign capital in news aggregators 20 percent, as was done in 2016 in relation to the media, and in 2017 - for audiovisual services. Such information is reported by RBC with reference to Dmitry Peskov, press secretary Vladimir Putin.

"Of course, the aggregators that cover a certain number of users can be equated in one way or another from an expert point of view with the media," the official said.

The bill on restricting foreign participation in the aggregators was introduced to the Lower Chamber on October 22 four deputies: Zhirinovtsy Andrei Lugova and Boris Paykin and unicorn Anton Gorelkin and Mikhail Staroshinov. He makes amendments to Article 10.4 of the Law "On Information".

It is forbidden to own news aggregators to any foreign individuals and legal entities, equally as Russian legal entities with foreign participation and Russian citizens who also have other citizenship. The total maximum share of such persons in the authorized capital of the owner of the aggregator cannot exceed 20 percent.

As stated in an explanatory note to the document, news aggregators, as well as the media and audiovisual services, "regularly have an informational impact on the population of Russia, so the legislation of Russia must make similar requirements for them." The proposed restrictions, according to deputies, are necessary "in order to prevent a threat to public order in Russia and thereby creating favorable conditions for the development of civil society."

The idea to equate news aggregators to the media was already discussed several years ago, but in March 2016 the Ministry of Communications and opposed . The deputy head of the department, Alexei Volin, explained that the restrictions imposed on aggregators will reduce the audience of Internet media by a quarter. In addition, the official noted that the aggregator has no editorial office - a key feature of the media - and therefore he is not able to check the published information.

However, he wrote on Monday RBC with reference to an unnamed source in the presidential administration, the Kremlin did not remove the issue from the agenda, although he repeatedly postponed his decision. The fact that the law was introduced right now, the interlocutor of the publication connected with the recent execution in the annexed Kerch .

“It is important not only what they write in the news, but also what their headlines are,” explained the source of RBC. “The brighter, the“ bloodstream ”of the heading, the more advertising and more money.” And therefore, he continued, it is important that the aggregator "has an understandable subject of responsibility." “It is one thing when the owner of the Russian, and another - when foreigners. Foreigners are more difficult to hold accountable,” the interlocutor of the publication concluded.

There are only four news aggregators with an audience of 1 million users per day in Russia: Yandex.NOVES, Mail.ru - News, Rambler/News and Media2. As RBC noted, the bill directly affects the first two of them. The head company of Yandex, which, in particular, also ruled Yandex.No, is the Yandex NV registered in the Netherlands, and its largest shareholder Arkady Volozh has Malta citizenship. The head company Mail.ru Group is registered in the British Virgin Islands, and 35 percent of its shares belong to the structures of the South African Naspers and the Chinese Tencent.

After the news of the bill, the Yandex shares fell by 5 percent.