Source: Radio Netherlands Worldwide

Russian president Dmitri Medvedev has signed into law a bill which expands the power of the Federal Security Service (FSB), Russia's secret service.

This body is a successor to the Soviet KGB and is a very powerful state agency. The new law would allow the FSB to issue official warnings to individuals whose actions are deemed to be creating the conditions for crime.

Human rights organisations have criticized the changes, saying they will give the FSB unlimited power and put it above the law, in what they fear could be a return to the Soviet era when the KGB used warnings to persecute dissidents.

"The most dangerous aspect about the new law is its vague phrasing," says Masha Lipman from the Carnegie Moscow Centre. "It says something about the responsibility of the citizens for creating conditions conducive to a crime. What these conditions are remains unclear."

This law expands even further the lack of accountability that already exists in Russia, Lipman says. "It is easy for the government to justify such a law when there is no political competition and no mechanisms for accountability. FSB will not face any obstacles because it enjoys the personal support of Vladimir Putin, who is himself a former KGB agent." 

At the same time Lipman says we shouldn't put undue emphasis on the new bill. "It is not uncommon in Russia that the legislation looks tougher that the actual policies", she says, "This law is intended more as a weapon of intimidation rather than something that will be put into practise."

However, she adds, the law should make political activists more cautious. "The trend of the current government is to minimize the risks of an escalation [of political resistance] at an early stage rather than let it go out of hand". 

"Although there is no large scale resistance now, the government is forced to take unpopular measures due to the effects of the economic crisis", she continues, "maybe this law will be more applicable in the future, when the government is more likely to face threats of political activism due to such measures."