A proposal to let the Federal Security Service summon people it believes are about to commit a crime and punish those who disobey was dropped from a controversial bill Tuesday after protests by rights groups.
Rights activists had said the proposal, in a bill to expand the FSB's powers, would have enabled it to detain opposition activists and independent journalists and undermine President Dmitry Medvedev's promises to foster civil rights.
The State Duma's Security Committee agreed Tuesday to remove several provisions from the bill, a committee spokesman said.
Analysts said the changes showed that the authorities were willing to put public opinion ahead of the demands of the FSB.
The revised bill, which faces a vote in the Duma on Friday in a key second reading, would give the FSB the right to issue warnings to people "whose acts create the conditions for the committing of a crime."
But it removes a provision from the original, government-proposed text that would have allowed the FSB to summon that person and impose up to 15 days in prison as punishment for refusal, according to a text posted on the Duma's web site.
"If someone is warned and they pay no heed, there will be no sanction," Vladimir Vasilyev, chairman of the Security Committee, told a news conference. "No one will take anyone away."
Other changes create a mechanism to appeal against the warnings and remove the FSB's right to publish the warnings.
Vasilyev said the changes were made after "society made its position clear."
A spokesman for the ruling United Russia party said it would use its parliamentary majority to pass the revised bill at its second and third readings.
"There is no question it's better than the original," said Tanya Lokshina, an activist with Human Rights Watch in Moscow and a vocal opponent of the original bill.
"But we cannot approve of a law that gives the FSB more power. Its powers are already excessive."
The FSB's influence grew greatly after Putin became president in 2000 and ordered it to lead the fight against Islamist rebels. Rights groups and opposition journalists say the government also used the FSB to pressure critics of the regime.
Yevgeny Minchenko, director of the Moscow-based International Institute of Political Analysis, said the decision to drop the most controversial parts of the bill showed that the authorities were growing more sensitive to public opinion.
Russia holds Duma elections in 2011 and a presidential vote in 2012.
"The authorities heard what the FSB and the public wanted," he said. "They went with public opinion."
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