The Federal Council has approved a new series of “anti-terrorist” laws spearheaded by State Duma deputy Irina Yarovaya and Senator Viktor Ozerov. All that awaits the legislation to make it law in Russia is the president's signature. Earlier today, Putin's spokesman told reporters that the Kremlin is aware that the legislation has strong critics, saying, “Right now, [those criticisms] are being reviewed, and the president will make a decision, when the document comes to him for a signature.”

Mikhail Fedotov, the head of the Russian president's Council on Human Rights, encouraged the Senate to reject the legislation. Nikolai Nikiforov, Russia's minister of mass communications, has said that enforcing the laws would be “difficult.” The State Council of Tatarstan, a predominantly Muslim republic inside Russia, has spoken out against the legislation's new restrictions on missionary work.

For more on the legislation in question, see: Russia’s State Duma just approved some of the most repressive laws in post-Soviet history and A nation of criminal suspects An editorial by ‘Meduza’