Moscow - The Russian judicial authorities have classified negative comments about the police on the internet as a crime for the first time, prompting protests from human rights groups, according to a report in Tuesday's Kommersant newspaper.

A court in Syktyvkar in the Russian republic of Komi gave a blog writer a suspended sentence of one year for "fomenting hatred against the social group of the police."

Handing down the sentence on Monday, Judge Lyubov Sukhareva said the crime was especially reprehensible as it represented an elevated risk for society.

Human rights activist Lyudmila Alexeyeva of the Moscow Helsinki Group condemned the sentence Tuesday as "stupidity."

She warned against restrictions on the freedom of opinion in Russia as a result of the precedent-setting case.

The methods were like those used in a dictatorship, Alexeyeva was quoted by Interfax news agency as saying.

Internet users have complained to President Dmitry Medvedev in an open letter of the "nanny state and paternalism."

Unlike the synchronized state television service, the internet has been seen until now as a forum for free expression.

Kommersant reported that the blogger called the police "animals" because of their brutal treatment of the opposition in February 2007 on his website suranov. livejournal. com.

Following a tightening of Russia's laws on extremism, human rights experts feared that the laws would be used to seriously curtail press freedoms. (dpa)