MOSCOW: Russia’s lower house of parliament approved a raft of anti-terror measures on Friday that the opposition called the ‘Big Brother’ law, which may also cost internet companies billions to store mandated users’ data. In the last session ahead of parliamentary elections in September lawmakers approved legislation that criminalises failure to report some crimes and lowers the age of criminal responsibility to 14 years for a number of offences, and also foresees seven years in jail for abetting terrorism online. But what caused an even bigger stir was the second bill that significantly increased the security service’s surveillance prerogatives and obliged communication providers to store users’ calls, messages and data for six months and also hand it to ‘relevant government agencies’ when requested. Social networks also have to store such information for six months, according to the bill, which still has to be approved by the upper house of parliament and signed by President Vladimir Putin.