Modeled after the USSR

On September 17, a draft law was submitted to the State Duma prohibiting foreign individuals and legal entities, citizens of the Russian Federation with dual citizenship, as well as stateless persons from establishing mass media in Russia. In addition, the share of foreigners in the capital of companies that own Russian media is proposed to be limited to twenty percent of the shares.

I see the proposed draft (the text of which is still missing, by the way) for three reasons. The first is political. Putin is sure that the country is surrounded by enemies, which means that the enemy should not be allowed to form mass consciousness. Suddenly, he formulates something like that, after which a “Maidan” will happen in Russia.

The second reason is business. Foreign owners own the most successful publishing houses, which almost completely control the volume of advertising in magazines, partly in the information segment of the Internet. The appearance of such a rule as restrictions on ownership in the law significantly reduces the value of these companies, increases the risks for owners, and so on. As a result, this makes it possible to buy these IDs from them at significant discounts.

The third reason is lobbying, it is partly related to the second, but it can also be completely independent. The appearance of the initiative at a strictly defined moment (literally a few days left before the closing of the IMSM deal) is a way to reduce the price of a particular asset and scare away uncontrolled Western buyers from it.

In any case, this initiative fits well into the logic of the development of the Russian political and economic system, which is increasingly closed to external players and more and more stewed in its own juice, following the model of the Soviet Union.