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Musician Savva Terentiev wrote in his blog last year that the police force should be cleaned up by ceremonially burning officers twice a day in a town square. His comments earned him charges of "inciting hatred or enmity", for which he received a one-year suspended sentence.

Campaigners argue that the case sets a dangerous precedent for anyone wishing to express free speech on the internet. In Russia, newspapers and TV channels are controlled

According to Alexander Verkhovsky, director of the SOVA centre in Moscow, a non-governmental group that monitors extremism, the verdict was "absolutely unjustified".

"Savva for sure wrote a rude comment ... but this verdict means it will be impossible to make rude comments about anybody," he said.

"The fact that Terentiev got a conditional sentence is unimportant. What's important is the precedent," added a Russian blogger named Puffinus.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev recently spoke of how freedom of speech is essential in Russia, and that the government should only use a light touch when policing the internet.

"It's possible to go on to the internet and get basically anything you want. In that regard, there are no problems of closed access to information in Russia today, there weren't any yesterday and there won't be any tomorrow," he told news agency Reuters last month.

"Thank God we live in a free society," he added.