What was banned and what was left out

Rehabilitation of Nazism

The initiator of the law: a group of State Duma deputies from all factions.

Entry into force: May 16, 2014.

The bottom line: the denial of the facts established at the Nuremberg trials, and the dissemination of "knowingly false information about the activities of the USSR" during the Second World War are punishable as a criminal offense up to imprisonment for up to three years. And if all this is done with the use of the media, then for up to five years. The law presupposes the existence of an official interpretation of the events of the war and, de facto, a ban on the search for historical truth.

Foreign accounts of officials

Initiator of the law: President of the Russian Federation.

Entry into force: January 1, 2015.

The bottom line: civil servants, on whose decisions the national security and sovereignty of the country depends, are prohibited from keeping money in foreign banks. Now such a ban applies to the country's leadership, the Prosecutor General's Office and the Central Bank, heads of regions and heads of state corporations, as well as federal officials appointed by the president, government or the prosecutor general. Citizens applying for any positions in the civil service will be required to provide information on income.

Advertising on paid channels

The initiator of the law: State Duma deputy Igor Zotov (A Just Russia faction).

Entry into force: January 1, 2015.

The bottom line: non-terrestrial channels that are distributed by paid subscription will lose advertising money (in 2013, according to the Association of Communication Agencies of Russia, this amount amounted to 4 billion rubles, from 5% to 40% of broadcasters' revenue). According to deputy Zotov, the law equalizes the rights of free channels that earn on advertising with paid ones, which will now earn only on subscription. Roskomnadzor has already drawn up a list of 1,400 pay TV channels on which advertising will be banned. The law passed the Duma and the Federation Council in a record 9 days: experts believe that it is directed primarily against the Dozhd TV channel.

Personal Information

The initiator of the law: a group of deputies of the State Duma (fractions of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation and the Liberal Democratic Party).

Entry into force: September 1, 2015.

The bottom line: the personal data of Russian citizens will be stored only on servers in the country. Target? “Strengthen the information security of the country, citizens in the face of the complication of the international situation,” the deputies say. The law will affect sites for the sale of air tickets and hotel reservations, online stores and social networks. Opponents of the law argue that there are not enough data centers in Russia, and storing data in them costs a third more than abroad. Result: December 12, Google Inc. decided to close its engineering office in Russia, where more than fifty programmers work. Facebook and Twitter are negotiating with Roskomnadzor.

Foreign capital in the media

The initiator of the law: a group of deputies of the State Duma (fractions of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, the Liberal Democratic Party and A Just Russia).

Entry into force: January 1, 2017.

The bottom line: the share of foreign capital in any Russian media cannot exceed 20%. Amendments to the media law prohibit both direct media ownership and indirect media ownership through a chain of Russian legal entities. Citizens of Russia with a second citizenship also fell under the law. The amendments will affect such major players in the media market as Channel One, STS channels, Disney, Ekho Moskvy radio station, as well as a number of major publishing houses, including Sanoma Independent Media, which now publishes the Vedomosti newspaper.

*Cm. nt #4 dated February 10, 2014.

And what was missing

Funded part of the pension

Since January 1, citizens of Russia born in 1967 and younger have ceased to receive the funded part of the pension, which is 6% of the salary, into a special account. This gave the budget an additional 243 billion rubles. As Finance Minister Anton Siluanov acknowledged on June 25, "this money went to the Crimea, to take anti-crisis measures." On August 5, the government extended the moratorium on pension savings in NPFs (non-state pension funds) for 2015 as well.

TV channel "Rain"

From January 29*, Dozhd stopped broadcasting on most satellite and cable networks. The formal reason for the operators was the scandal surrounding the survey about besieged Leningrad. One of the largest cable operators, Tricolor TV, called the “incorrect content policy of the channel” the reason for the shutdown. However, according to Dozhd CEO Natalia Sindeeva, the “face” command was given at one of the meetings in the presidential administration after a special report on the Sosny dacha cooperative was aired on November 30, 2013 - about the dachas of high Kremlin and Duma politicians. Further, the lease on the premises was not extended with the channel, and now Dozhd is broadcasting from a private apartment.

Lenta.ru

On March 12, Galina Timchenko, editor-in-chief of the most popular Russian news portal Lenta.ru, who had headed the publication since 2004, was dismissed: the daily audience of Lenta.ru was 10.9 million people, and the net profit for 2013 was 16.8 million rubles . (data from SPARK-Interfax). Following Timchenko, 58 people out of 94 editorial staff left the publication in a month. Galina Timchenko has launched a new online information project, Meduza, which is based in Riga.

Grani.ru, Kasparov.ru, EJ. ru" and LiveJournal Navalny

On March 13, Roskomnadzor blocked access to these resources. At the trial (according to EJ.ru), the prosecutor admitted that this measure was taken because of the materials on the Bolotnaya case, which “tendentiously cover” the actions of solidarity with the prisoners on May 6. The court took the side of the prosecutor's office. Alexei Navalny's blog has been blocked under the pretext that the oppositionist is violating the conditions of house arrest.

Cinema Museum

On October 27, the Cinema Museum actually ceased to exist. Due to a conflict with the new director, one of the founders and the permanent director of the museum (from 1992 to 2014) Naum Kleiman and the entire staff of the museum's researchers quit. The new director, Larisa Solonitsyna, was appointed to the post of director of the Cinema Museum on July 1 this year by the decision of the Minister of Culture Vladimir Medinsky.

Russian planet

On December 2, Pavel Pryanikov, editor-in-chief of the Russian Planet online publication, was fired without explanation. His place was taken by the director of the "Russian Planet" Alexander Isaev (the investor of the project is the construction company "Morton", owned by Alexander Ruchyev). On December 2, the editor-in-chief of the publication, Eduard Eidin, was introduced to journalists, who explained the dismissal of Pryanikov with different views on Russian cosmism and the future of the country: “You guys are weak cosmists.” Following Pryanikov, almost half of the editorial board quit. So far, nothing is known about the future plans of the Russian Planet investor.