Russia's parliament approved a package of bills that impose sweeping new restrictions on the Internet and blogging. The proposals drew wide criticism from local technology companies and pro-democracy activists.

The new measures come amid a series of steps to tighten the Kremlin's control over media and the political system in Russia, efforts that have gained momentum as western criticism of Moscow's behavior in Ukraine crisis has fueled official attacks on Kremlin critics inside Russia.

The draft laws affecting the Internet, which are expected to be signed soon by President Vladimir Putin and take effect in August, have elicited unusually strong criticism from Russia's vibrant technology sector.

"The adoption of the law will become a yet another step in increasing government control over the Internet in Russia, which will negatively impact the development of the industry," said a spokesman for Russia's biggest search engine Yandex. The company announced it was closing its popular blog-rating service earlier than it had planned "prompted by the recent legislative initiatives."

The package consists of three separate bills that impose strict control over disseminating information on the Internet, online payments and toughens punishment for terrorism and extremism. The bill from the package that sparked the most concern effectively equates popular bloggers to media outlets, subjecting them to substantially greater regulation and legal liability.

The bill would require bloggers with 3,000 or more page views a day to reveal their identities, fact-check their content, not disseminate extremist information or information violating privacy of citizens, and abide by the rules of pre-election silence, among other requirements--demands, which human rights activists say bloggers are ill-equipped to fulfill. Failure to comply would be punished by fines and possibly blocking.

"Today, the Internet is the last island of free expression in Russia and these draconian regulations are clearly aimed at putting it under government control," Hugh Williamson, Europe and Central Asia director at Human Rights Watch said.

Social-networking sites, blog hosts and other "organizers of disseminating of information on the Internet" may also be affected as the bill demands them to store data on popular users' activity online for six months for potential use by authorities in police and other investigations.

"Excessive regulation of the Internet" will lead to Russia losing it as a lucrative industry and an economy driver, Dmitry Grishin, chief executive of Mail. Ru Group which runs several social networks, said in a statement last week.

The proposals were originally included in a package of measures aimed at fighting terrorism--including broader search powers for Russia's Federal Security Service--proposed in the wake of deadly suicide bombings in Volgograd in December. Some of the restrictions were tightened as the proposals moved through parliament in recent weeks.

Supporters of the package include prominent members of the pro-Kremlin United Russia party. They argue that the moves are needed to control extremism and say Internet freedom won't be restricted. The government's communication watchdog said the bills won't restrict the ability of big foreign social networks to operate in Russia.

Mr. Putin, usually dismissive of the Internet, complained at a public appearance last week that "all this started at the dawn of the Internet as a special project of the U.S. CIA and that is how it has been developing."

Russian officials frequently have called for tighter controls on the Internet. This week a member of the upper house of parliament proposed creating a Kremlin-controlled version of the Internet and naming it after the iconic Russian children's book and cartoon character Cheburashka.

Western Internet companies working in Russia, including Google Inc., Facebook Inc. and Twitter Inc. declined to comment on the bills.