MOSCOW, May 6 (RAPSI) - Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed on Monday into law a bill that requires bloggers whose blogs attract a daily audience of more than 3,000 visitors to take on full responsibilities of mass media professionals.

The amended federal law on information now obliges the owners of personal websites and social networking pages with a daily audience of more than 3,000 visitors to comply with the rules for the media, notably, to check the reliability of information, to act in accordance with election campaign rules (pre-election silence, a ban on publishing poll results in the last five days before voting day), not to publish private information about other people, and to indicate age limits for users.

The most popular personal websites would have to be registered with the Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology and Mass Media (Roskomnadzor), which would notify users of their obligation to comply with the provisions of the law on the media.

Bloggers who will fail to comply with these rules would face fines up to 500,000 rubles ($14,000).

Finally, bloggers would have to pay taxes on their advertising income, which is currently not controlled and hence not taxable.