[JURIST] Russian President Dmitry Medvedev [official profile] on Sunday signed into law [press release, in Russian] a bill that introduces stricter punishments for those convicted of manipulating the stock market. Traders and journalists convicted of market manipulation involving more than 1,000,000 rubles may now face prison time between two and seven years, along with fines [AFP report]. The law passed through the State Duma and the Federation Council [official websites, in Russian] last month.

The law was announced [JURIST report] last year by the head of Russia's Federal Financial Markets Service (FFMS) [official website], Vladimir Milovidov [official profile]. The FFMS was created in 2004 by then-president and current Prime Minister Vladimir Putin [official website, in Russian]. In 2007, Russia created a new division [GAAP-IRFS report] within the FFMS in order to help combat insider trading, but it is unclear whether this has had any effect. Russia has two primary stock exchanges, the RTS and the MICEX [exchange websites].