The Russian parliament on Friday passed a controversial bill expanding what rights groups warn are the already formidable powers of the successor to the Soviet-era KGB security service. Rights activists and some lawmakers say the bill would essentially put the special service above the law and harks back to Soviet times when the much-feared FSB predecessor KGB used warnings to persecute dissidents.
The bill - which President Dmitry Medvedev says was drawn up on his instructions to improve existing legislation - would allow the Federal Security Service (FSB) to issue official warnings to individuals whose actions are deemed to be creating the conditions for crime.
Individuals deemed to have hindered an FSB employee in his work can also be fined or held in detention for up to 15 days, according to the bill. A total of 354 deputies in the State Duma, the lower house, voted for the bill on its third and final reading, and 96 against, an AFP correspondent said. The opposition says the FSB security service is already extremely powerful and empowering it further would contravene Medvedev's pledge to liberalise Russia. The ruling United Russia party headed by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and ultra-nationalist Liberal Democratic party voted in favour of the bill.
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