The issue: Now, police can arrest and jail people for crimes they have yet to commit; the old Soviet Union would have approved

Russia has taken an unfortunate step into its police-state past with a new law that grants the stateÕs security service broad powers to jail people simply on suspicion that they may be about to engage in illegal activity.

THE FSB HAS NOW regained a power that its feared predecessor agency, the KGB, had under the Soviet Union. This has been a consistent pattern under Vladimir Putin, who, first as president, then as prime minister, has steadily restored the power and prestige of the security agencies, at the expense, many say, of RussiaÕs fragile democracy.

The proposed law was introduced in April as an anti-terrorism measure after a pair of subway bombings killed 40 people. Now that it has been signed by President Dmitry Medvedev, the FSB can arrest, detain and fine people suspected of considering crimes against RussiaÕs security.

Supporters of the law say it merely empowers the police to act in a preventive, rather than reactive, capacity in fighting terrorism and extremism. But critics quickly pointed out that it could just as easily be used to suppress rival political movements. The Communists, RussiaÕs largest opposition party, denounced the law.

CYNICS, OF WHOM Russia seems to have many, say it only gives the cover of legality to what the police had been doing anyway. Others say it gives the police another tool to deal with the proliferating number of groups protesting official corruption and authoritarian government.

From Moscow, Guardian reporter Tom Parfitt wrote, ÒRussiaÕs police and security services have looked increasingly clumsy as they try to deal with inventive grassroots activists or single-issue protest groups. One group wears blue buckets on their heads in mimicry of the flashing blue lights on the cars of bureaucrats who terrorize the roads: police arrested several activists but had to let them go because they had committed no crime.Ó

Now Russian police wonÕt have to worry about that troubling technicality: They can arrest and jail people for crimes they have yet to commit. The old Soviet Union would have approved.

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