The laws are a mixed bag, some tightening long-standing screws on opposition activity, while others respond to newer threats. 

New restrictions banning public demonstrations near law enforcement premises, defining single-person pickets — the traditional means of avoiding restrictions on mass gatherings — as protests, and prohibiting support of rallies by foreign individuals or organizations are the latest moves in a years-long tightening of laws on mass demonstrations.

Likewise, a law allowing individuals to be categorized as “foreign agents,” a legal term critics see as redolent of Soviet-era purges, comes after several years of the label being applied to organizations ranging from human rights groups to independent pollsters.

Other provisions, including those allowing the state to ban social media networks that censor Russian state media are new. One bill criminalizing the spread of libel online is aimed partly — according to its author, United Russia deputy Dmitry Vyatkin — at popular channels on the messaging app Telegram, which many Russians turn to for news and political gossip.

In particular, a law banning the disclosure of security service employees’ personal data has been linked by the BBC’s Russian Service to a recent Bellingcat investigation that used telephone and flight records to unmask the FSB officers behind the attempt on Alexei Navalny’s life.

More broadly however, the new restrictions are seen by political analysts as the Russian state girding itself for a difficult year in which the pro-Kremlin United Russia bloc will have to defend its supermajority in the State Duma amid a spirited opposition challenge and low approval ratings for the ruling party. 

“These laws are a hedge against all possible scenarios,” said Carnegie’s Kolesnikov. “Including those related to the elections.”