Russian President Dmitry Medvedev Thursday endorsed a controversial draft law that would expand the powers of the Federal Security Service, the KGB`s main successor. The plan has triggered fierce opposition from human-rights groups. In his first public comments on the draft, which was approved in the lower house of parliament Friday, Mr. Medvedev told a joint news conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel that he had ordered the proposed changes, which he defended as a routine domestic matter. Ms. Merkel said the issue had come up in talks between the two presidents in Yekaterinburg Wednesday. She cited "different assessments" of human-rights and civil-society issues between Germany and Russia but stopped short of criticizing the draft law. Domestic critics said Mr. Medvedev`s support for the plan is at odds with his pledges to increase political openness and shore up the rule of law. Kremlin opponents say the proposal is the latest in a series of measures that amount to a tightening of state control. "The president has said publicly today that there`s no hope for liberalization of the regime," said Lev Ponomaryov, head of the nongovernmental group For Human Rights and a member of a Kremlin advisory panel that recommended against passage of the plan last month. "It`s an absolutely totalitarian law," he added. Supporters of the law-which was virtually assured of passage thanks to the commanding majorities held by the pro-Kremlin United Russia party in both houses of parliament-deny the plan represents an effort to tighten the screws on critics. They argue that it gives the Security Service, known by its Russian initials FSB, necessary powers to fight terrorism and extremism. "The draft law today corresponds to the most human, the highest standards of a law-based state," Vladimir Vasiliev, chairman of the parliamentary committee responsible for the draft, told reporters Wednesday. The latest draft law would allow FSB agents to issue binding warnings to people they suspected were preparing to commit crimes, imposing stiff penalties for those who ignored them. Supporters say amendments to the original draft removed elements that had raised concerns among human-rights advocates, but critics say those changes do little to soften the plan. "The FSB`s powers in our country have long since gone beyond all reasonable limits," Memorial, one of Russia`s oldest human-rights groups, said in a public appeal Thursday. The new law will be a "tool of political intimidation" reminiscent of Soviet-era curbs on dissidents, the group said. Though it still reveres Soviet dictator Josef Stalin, the Communist Party also opposes the law, saying it unnecessarily strengthens the FSB`s powers. That view is shared by Just Russia, a party that usually supports Kremlin initiatives. Critics said the new plan was the latest of several Kremlin steps to limit dissent. Last week, parliament gave initial approval to a government plan to increase penalties for protests that block roads and railways-areas where popular demonstrations last year often led to officials giving in to protestors` demands. Earlier in the year, parliament approved new restrictions on trade unions. Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev, meanwhile, called for broader democracy to combat rising social tension. "To prevent society from exploding, a new policy is needed," he said in a newspaper interview published Wednesday. Opinion polls show approval ratings for Mr. Medvedev and his patron and predecessor, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, remain high. But dissent remains tightly controlled. Opposition groups say they plan another demonstration on July 31 to draw attention to limits on freedom of assembly, which is protected by article 31 of Russia`s constitution. The last such protest, on May 31, led to more than 100 arrests. That spurred rare criticism from the Kremlin`s human-rights ombudsman, Vladimir Lukin, who denounced the authorities` refusal to allow the demonstration as illegal and police manhandling of demonstrators as overly harsh. In the weeks following, Mr. Lukin has been subject to a wave of criticism himself from pro-Kremlin officials, as well as reports that he will soon be ousted.