The German media group Axel Springer has sold off its media assets in Russia to Artcom Media, a division of the Russian-based publishing group ACMG run by Alexander Fedotov. The assets include the Russian editions of Forbes and OK! magazines.

As part of the deal, Regina von Flemming, chief executive of Axel Springer Russia, has taken a 20% stake in the business while acting as a consultant. The terms of the sale have not been disclosed.

Axel Springer’s decision to pull out is directly related to the introduction of a law last year by Vladimir Putin’s administration that limits foreigners from holding more than 20% in Russian media groups.

Ralph Büchi, president of Springer’s international operations, registered “regret” that his company has to leave the Russian market “because of the new media law.”

Springer is the latest in a string of foreign companies forced by the law to pull out of Russia, reports the Financial Times.

In April, the Finnish media group Sanoma sold off its 33% stake in Vedomosti, the business newspaper partly owned by the Financial Times and the Wall Street Journal.



An attempt by the Russian arm of the US-based Hearst media group to buy a stake in Fashion Press — a jointly owned group that publishes the Russian versions of Harper’s Bazaar, Cosmopolitan and Esquire — was blocked last month.

The US company Discovery Communications distilled its Russian holding by entering a joint venture with the Russian-owned National Media Group.

And Sweden’s Modern Times group is thought lkely, reports Bloomberg, to sell its Russian broadcaster CTC Media to billionaire Alisher Usmanov.

The new law is viewed as an attempt by Putin’s government to control the media while ridding the country of western influences.

Sources: RBTH/Forbes/Financial Times/Bloomberg

