MOSCOW — A Finnish media company on Thursday said it would sell its one-third stake in Vedomosti, Russia’s most influential business newspaper, as well as ownership of The Moscow Times, the country’s only English-language daily, to a Russian buyer.

The deal, announced Thursday by the Finnish company, Sanoma, is the first in what is expected to be a wave of sales or restructurings in the Russian news media as foreign companies adjust their Russian assets under a new law that limits them to a 20 percent stake. Lawmakers adopted the legislation last year, saying it was needed to ensure Russia’s national security.

Vedomosti, which regularly publishes investigations and opinion pieces critical of the government, has been a focus of official ire. Both Pearson, publisher of The Financial Times, and News Corp., which owns Dow Jones, also own 33-percent stakes in the newspaper, which by law they will be required to reduce by 2016.

In a statement, Sanoma said it began the process of selling its holdings in Russian news media in 2013, before the law was adopted, in order to focus on its “core markets.”