Russia's Deputy PM: draft bill capping foreign stake in IT firms 'destructive'

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia's Deputy Prime Minister Maxim Akimov on Monday called a draft law on limiting foreign ownership in major Russian information technology companies to 20% "destructive".

"The competitiveness of the Russian economy is largely determined by the competitiveness of our companies," Akimov said in a statement. "And this draft bill undermines stability and competitiveness of the companies, giving all tech market players wrong signals."

The draft bill was submitted to the State Duma on Friday. Shares in Yandex, known as Russia's Google, were up 3.6% in New York after Akimov's statement.

(Reporting by Gleb Stolyarov and Anna Rzhevkina; editing by Katya Golubkova and Deepa Babington)