Pavel Astakhov, a celebrity attorney that leads the “For Putin!” movement, voiced support for the law. He added that the suggested measures seemed more lenient than laws in the West: “Here, only acts that lead to material loss, which must be proven, are punished, while in other countries, the accountability sets in for any attempt to inflict such an act.”

The Chair of the Information Policy Commission of the Federation Council, Lyudmila Narusova, also voiced support for stricter control of the internet.

“The lack of legal regulation of the Internet leads to terrorist propaganda and to the publication of recommended methods on how to assemble a ‘shahid’s belt’ [a belt of explosives that is worn by Muslim suicide bombers],” she said. “The Government is obligated to keep citizens out of harm’s way, and any talk of censorship is groundless.” Narusova believes that the draft law could help prevent a wide range of crimes, including child pornography and pedophilia.

Senator Vladimir Slutsker, a Federation Council delegate from Chuvashiya who introduced his own version of an internet regulation bill in February, said that a new law was needed since the relevance of the regular law on mass-media was questionable. “It is not clearly written into the law itself, and [cases] are now given up to the buy-out of the courts.”

Nearly all the speakers agreed that controls on the internet must be reinforced. One of the few dissenting voices came from Mikhail Fedotov, a Secretary of the Russian Union of Journalists, who co-authored Russia’s the original draft law on mass-media. Fedotov is certain that there is no need to institute any new restrictions regarding extremism and other specific crimes on the internet. “What if the salesman killed the customer,” he asked, “would we try him using the law ‘On the protection of the rights of the customer?’”

Fedotov asserted that a single amendment to the law on mass-media, which would allow for prosecuting slander on the web, would suffice.

Russian lawmakers presented amendments on Tuesday which would strictly regulate the most popular Russian websites. If passed, the legislation would change the way the internet is viewed from a legal standpoint. Vladimir Slutsker, a delegate from Chuvashiya, introduced the proposed changes.

“Amendments are needed to increase responsibility for the information being posted, Slutsker told the Moskovsky Komsomolets newspaper. “We propose equating internet sites with mass media depending on the frequency of visits.” Sites that see more than 1000 visitors would be treated the same as a newspaper or TV station, and would be required to register through the Russian agency that oversees mass media.

In addition, the proposed changes would force websites to cite their sources, and reference only registered publications.

Slutsker told the Kommersant newspaper that one of the law’s intentions was to block “irresponsible journalists from spreading rumors and hiding behind anonymous Web sites.” Another was to curb extremist speech and pornography.

Internet blogs and social networking sites would be excluded, according the delegate’s press secretary.

Criticism of the proposal was sharp, with opponents calling the move the government’s latest step in dismantling freedom of speech in the country. Some critics equated the draft law with censorship under the Soviet Union.

Opponents also described the difficulty of both accurately tracking the number of visitors, and of maintaining control over web content.

Anatoly Baranov, the editor of Forum-MSK.ru, an online journal, told the Moscow Times newspaper that any attempt at regulation would prove useless.

“Even if the amendments were passed, enforcing the law would be impossible because web site owners can easily move servers elsewhere,” Baranov said.

As of yet, the Russian state has no jurisdiction to shut down websites based abroad.