President Dmitry Medvedev on Wednesday sent legislation to the State Duma to soften the country's NGO law, but human rights groups said the proposals were far too slight.

Medvedev told a meeting with representatives of nongovernmental organizations that the reform to the 2006 law would ease accounting, auditing and registration requirements.

Lyudmila Alexeyeva, head of the Moscow Helsinki Group, said that while reforming the law was a step toward liberalization, the law itself was deeply flawed. "In a normal democratic state, civil society controls bureaucracy. But this law is based on the principle that bureaucracy controls civil society. This is perverse," she told Interfax.

Human Rights Watch, meanwhile, said in a report released Wednesday that Medvedev has done little to reverse the authoritarianism in this field that began growing under his predecessor, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.

The 68-page report, published at Hrw.org, said the NGO law continues to stifle NGOs' work, while the government also harasses organizations with measures like arbitrary tax, labor and fire inspections and anti-extremism legislation. "The groups targeted are usually those that work on controversial issues, may be capable of galvanizing public dissent or receive funding from abroad," the report said.

Human Rights Watch called on Medvedev to step up the impetus on reforms. "He needs to make sure that the reform brings about real change," Holly Cartner, Europe and Central Asia director at Human Rights Watch, said in an e-mailed statement.