WASHINGTON DC, July 26 - RAPSI. The US State Department believes that freedom of the press in Russia has been curbed following the State Duma's adoption of laws dealing with unlawful content on the Internet and NGOs financed from abroad, said Michael Posner, Assistant Secretary of State and head of the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, at the meeting of the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission on Wedensday.

The Russian parliament's lower house passed over 150 bills in the spring and summer. The most high-profile of these are the following: the law increasing punishments for violations during rallies; the law branding NGOs financed from foreign sources and engaged in politics "foreign agents"; the law recriminalizing defamation; and the law establishing a black-list of websites with illegal content.

Under the "foreign agents" law, the "foreign agents" will be entered into a special registry and various legal regulations will be applied to them, which will not apply to ordinary non-profit organizations. The regulations will stipulate specific accountability and checks.

The registry of domains and websites with illegal content will be established as of November. It will include websites which contain information harmful for children, child pornography or information promoting suicide or drugs.

The Internet community reacted negatively to the bill, fearing government censorship. Wikipedia also staged a protest, temporarily shutting down its Russian pages on Tuesday.

However, Russia's Foreign Ministry has also criticized U.S. human rights policy on numerous occasions.