MOSCOW, Feb 26: Russia’s lower house of parliament approved on Sunday a sweeping new anti-terrorism law defining terms under which the military may shoot down hijacked passenger planes and hit terrorist targets abroad.

The law entitled “Counter-terrorist Action” was approved in a final reading with 423 votes in favour, one against and eight abstentions.

It will be passed to the upper house of parliament and then President Vladimir Putin for final approval — both of which are considered a formality.

“This law is very much needed ... It defines what terrorism is. Without it, it was difficult to carry out the struggle against terrorism by lawful means,” said a deputy with the pro-Kremlin United Russian Party, Nikolai Kovalyov.

The head of the Duma lower house’s legislation committee, Pavel Krasheninnikov, described the law as “strict”.

“In working out the law we studied the sad experience of terror acts in Madrid, the United States, Beslan and elsewhere,” Krasheninnikov told journalists.

The text approved on Sunday sets out a range of procedures for counter-terrorist operations, interception of email and telephone communications and operations outside Russian territory.

It includes procedures for shooting down hijacked planes in case of a threat to fly such a plane into a strategic object or heavily populated area.

Counter-terrorism operations outside Russian territory can only be carried out on the president’s authorisation, the law states.

The new legislation is partly a response to the September 2004 attack on a school in the southern Russian town of Beslan by fighters supporting the insurgency in the nearby Russian province of Chechnya.

The Beslan attack claimed the lives of 331 people, including 186 children.

Moscow has long threatened to carry out operations on the territory of its neighbour Georgia to combat foreign fighters that it says have crossed into southern Russia from Georgia.

The legislation passed on Sunday omitted a controversial section in earlier drafts that would have restricted media reporting during counter-terrorism operations.—AFP