Russia’s lower house of parliament has approved on October 23 a new bill widening the definition of high treason.

The State Duma voted 375-2 in favour of the measure, which carries prison terms of up to eight years for illegally obtaining secret state information. The law expands the definition of high treason to include “granting financial, technical, consulting, or other help” to those seeking to harm Russia’s security, including its “constitutional order, sovereignty, and territorial and state integrity.”

The law has drawn condemnation abroad, with Human Rights Watch denouncing it as a scheme aimed at “paralysing” political rivals. In a statement issued on October 24, the New York-based group said the treason bill “directly threatens the exercise of protected fundamental rights” and that its broad definition of treason was “open to abuse.”

“It’s imperative for Russia’s international partners to take a sober look at what is happening in Russia today,” said Human Rights Watch’s Europe director, Hugh Williamson, “and not to stand by silently as Russia’s civil society is dismantled.”

The opposition Just Russia party said the bill opposes changes, as such a wide definition of high treason meant “almost any Russian citizen with any contacts with any foreigner” could be accused of betraying the state.

The bill, drafted by the Federal Security Service (FSB), changes the interpretation of treason to include “granting financial, technical, consulting or other help” to a foreign state or an international organization. It also mentioned unspecified attempts by various international organizations to obtain Russia’s state secrets “by illegal means.”

As a collateral event to the winds of change blowing over the country, Moscow ordered the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) to close at the start of this month, accusing Washington of using its international aid mission in Russia to meddle in Russian politics and influence elections.

Russia’s Human Rights Ombudsman Vladimir Lukin, who was appointed by President Vladimir Putin, sides with the bill’s critics. Lukin said the measure contradicted international law and Russia’s constitution by giving a definition that was too broad to fairly determine an individual’s guilt.

Pavel Chikov, who heads the Russian human-rights group Agora, told Radio Free Europe that complaints addressed by Russians to international bodies can now be viewed as “high treason.”

“A complaint to the UN Commission on Human Rights or the European Court of Human Rights, for instance, which contains information that may appear to the Federal Security Service as threatening Russia’s national security, is essentially high treason now.” The law’s covers such a broad range of activities and “it’s so wide that it could target absolutely legal, lawful activities of non-government organizations, civic activists, journalists, and even businesspeople,” added Chikov.

It is undoubted that such a bill will give the Federal Security Service (FSB), the bill’s author, more leeway to put dissidents on trial. The draft law is widely seen as part of a recent Kremlin crackdown that has seen the jailing of political opponents and the adoption of restrictive new legislation, including laws dramatically hiking fines for protesters, and forcing foreign-funded non-governmental organizations to register as “foreign agents.”

Rights groups say the bill harks back to Soviet-era repressions. “This law is monstrous and takes us back to Soviet times,” says veteran Russian rights campaigner Lev Ponomaryov. “All those who say that Russia was returning to the 1930s have now been proven right.”