Putin banned foreigners from owning large online classifieds sites

President Vladimir Putin signed a law banning foreigners from owning large online classifieds services. This is reported on the legal information portal.

“The owner of the ad placement service can be citizens of Russia, Russian legal entities or organizations - in this case, foreign participation is allowed, but Russian owners must have the right to make decisions (more than 50% of voting shares),” said the author of the bill, MP Anton Gorelkin.

Roskomnadzor will maintain a register of sites with a daily audience of more than 100 thousand users that are subject to this law. “He will ensure that the services are not used for criminal offenses, disclosure of state secrets, dissemination of calls for terror and extremism,” Gorelkin added.

The first version of the bill stated that foreigners could own a maximum of 20% of the shares of any ad service. these amendments opposed service The Avito , calling them “redundant, overly vague and disproportionate to the level of public significance.”

The main shareholder of Avito is the Dutch Prosus , which, after the start of the invasion of Ukraine, decided to leave the Russian market.